Happy afternoon!
Today’s post is brought to you by the number zero, as in, the amount of
money I will be paying to Verizon ever again. As I grow older (and marginally more self-aware), I’ve
realized that what I value most is freedom and flexibility. Subsequently, some contracts feel like
nooses around my neck. I love me
my iphone, but my monthly bill was ridiculous – $80 (or $100, with tethering). And whenever I inevitably cracked my
screen, I still had to pay out the ass, and Verizon was useless. I don’t actually have a problem with
paying money for services I deem valuable (ie, wrote my financial advisor a
check for a few hundred dollars today).
I even had a moment of partial insanity where I contemplated buying $90
yoga pants last week. But I
decided that Verizon wasn’t helping me out – they were bundling their plans in
such a way that I paid for a lot of services/minutes/data that I didn’t
need. So long, suckers – I now
have a plan that’s $12/month, with no contract.
Several months back, a new acronym entered my vocabulary –
MVNO (mobile virtual network operator).
Essentially, MVNOs are companies who purchase access to network services
from providers like AT&T and Verizon at wholesale rates. They then go ahead and sell this access
to customers. Imagine AT&T as
the furniture store in the great location, with higher costs due to overhead
for real estate and employees. The
MVNO is a furniture warehouse that has the exact same furniture, but a
bare-bones setup. The furniture
store would prefer to sell all of its furniture at the high price, but if
there’s not enough demand, they’d rather sell the furniture to the warehouse
store and make some profit, even though that nets less money. Enough people want to pay for the good
service & experience of the furniture store that both businesses are able
to co-exist despite the lower prices of the warehouse.
So I finally bit the bullet and switched to an MVNO (you can
find a list here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_mobile_virtual_network_operators). I’m so excited not to pay for
minutes/texts I never use, and to no longer be a slave to Verizon’s two-year
contracts. It’s worth noting that
my new plan has very little data – I typically keep data turned off and take
advantage of wifi, taking comfort that if I get lost and need googlemaps, it’s
just one button away.
 |
| Turns out I was using way fewer minutes than I had been paying for |
Tethering is free on Verizon and most carriers if you use Android or jail break your iPhone. Android is really the budget friendly OS, Apple’s premiums almost make no sense. I have never paid for an app on Android. This proposed option only makes sense if you don't use data often, which kind of defeats the purpose of having a smartphone to begin with. Most of the cost of the phone is in the technology which provides you with 3g/4g access.
ReplyDeleteIf you really want to spend close to nothing on a phone and you use almost no data, you would do so by investing in an iTouch which has the same OS and basically the same functionality as an iPhone minus the 3g/4g radios. Not only that but it is thinner and has better battery life, and then coupled with that purchasing a standalone GPS for navigation when Wi-Fi is not an option would be the way to do so. For your calling needs getting a dumb phone and a prepaid option could make it dirt cheap. But usually people would not go through such troubles, i.e. 3 devices, to save money.
So tethering is free on Verizon ... if you have at least 4G of data. So I personally did have to pay for an extra 2G/month (I initially had 2G) to be able to tether. Needed it for work, so it was worth it at the time.
DeleteYou're definitely right that my current plan has very little data, and would only work for someone who is in wifi areas a lot or is OK with being flexible about checking email and using data. It works for me for now, and I can always pay for extra data usage -- I will never be lost in a city and unable to check googlemaps, or be unable to send an important email. The MVNO's offer a broad range of plans -- I could have unlimited text/talk & 2G data for $55 a month, no contract, which is better than what I paid at Verizon. For me, not having a contract and having the flexibility to change which services I want is key.
Neat suggestion -- I definitely wouldn't want three devices, though ;)
Sorry it took me so long to respond -- just saw your comment!
Easy -- you really don't need two of those devices.
Delete@dina Very neat, these sort of posts are what I like to see on this blog.
ReplyDelete@tim Definitely true that the 3 device solution is by far the cheapest, but with the op's suggestion, you can pay less for identical service. If you take a look at the sites, some of them provide basically* the same services as verizon, on the verizon network, at $10-30 less per month. This is saving without sacrifice.
*by basically I mean that as long as you have a 4G device, you have the full power of verizon backing it with the same data, voice, and text limits.
For me, the biggest thing is having no contract and the ability to change up my plan depending on what data/text/voice needs I have. Mostly so that I'm a position where if I have no money (or want to spend little money), I'm not burdened by ongoing costs. Which, BTW, is why I am not into home ownership (and mortgages) at this point in my life. ;)
DeleteMy $12/month plan might be a little extreme BUT it's crazy to me how blindly we all assume that crazy-expensive and restrictive cell phone contracts are our only option, when luckily they're not! Hopefully word starts to get out -- MVNOs blew my mind when I first learned about them.
Also, you can check out freedompop.com -- for $90, you can buy a tiny device that functions as a wifi hotspot, and provides up to 500MB of data per month for free. Not a bad supplement, with only an initial cost, no ongoing costs.
DeleteThere is no contract or non-contract that has a similar unlimited data plan that I have and until that goes away nothing even really touches that deal. Spirit or T-Mobile have unlimited plans but their services aren't as robust and I use an average of 7-10 GB a month. I am all for people saving money but most of it comes at the cost of data and I would have to see, as in benchmark, the 'identical service' to believe it. Plus most companies offer some kind of deduction to your cell bill, I have one from my old job for 15% off my Verizon bill and me being on a family plan that is a lot. I individually pay about $50 plus taxes on my unlimited, its decent for the service I use.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm not saying that a plan such as the one I have (btw, moved up to a more extensive but slightly more expensive plan) works for everyone. If you truly need/want unlimited data, that just means it's worth it to you. (And $50 for unlimited data isn't bad -- compare that to the $100 I was paying before for 4 gigs, minutes, and texts)
DeleteBut what I ended up realizing was that I got a lot from Verizon that I just didn't need -- so for people who are happily going along paying a bunch of money for a plan, when they could be just as happy but have more money in their pockets with an MVNO, I hope they realize there are options (despite what the big cell phone companies want us to believe =P). And that those options are really easy to set up.