Walmart & TracFone Offer Prepaid Wireless

The prepaid cell phone market continues to gain lots of momentum as consumers are still looking to save money. The new discount cell phone service is offered exclusively from Walmart through Tracfone Wireless, a subsidiary of America Movil. Walmart is currently offering two plans: the first is a $30 plan that provides 1,000 minutes, 1,000 texts, 30 megabytes of data and unlimited 411 for 30 days; the second for $45 gets you unlimited talk, text and data for 30 days. The discount plans prices do not include phones, which on Walmart.com's Straight Talk brand shop range from LG and Samsung models between a basic $39.98 device and a $328.88 phone with touch-screen, camera and video.

This should bring lots more competition from new sources that AT&T or Verizon cannot just buy out (i.e Alltell or Cingular). This should also translate into more reasonable prices for current plans in the not so distant future.

Ironically there are currently 16 Walmart stores listed in our database as having poor cell phone coverage around the US.  Hopefully, someone diligence from Walmart or Tracfone will find this information and take some action to fix the problems for its' customers.

Related sites:  See Our Tracfone Consumer Generated Coverage Maps

Cell Boosters: A Solution for Poor Cell Signals

Wherever there are dead cell zones, dropped calls, static during calls and generally, bad reception is bound to follow. Cell phone users that live in an area where there is not even one bar of reception anywhere in their vicinity will have a hard time rectifying their situation without a provider’s solution. However, for those that can pick up even one bar of reception, a cell booster is a very affordable solution to improve cellular signal reception.

In the simplest terms, cell boosters take weak cellular signals and amplify them within a home, office, or building. A typical cell booster kit includes an external antenna (for picking up weak signals), an amplifier (for boosting weak signal), and an internal antenna (for rebroadcasting the amplified signals). But how does one go about selecting the best cell booster?

There are a couple of things to keep in mind when shopping for a booster: application and frequency. There is a difference between a small home cellular repeater and one designed for a warehouse. Large, multi-story buildings or spaces larger than 30,000 square feet often require custom cell booster installation and the expertise of a specialist.

However, for smaller cell booster applications, the most important thing to take note of is frequency. Amplifiers operate on different frequencies including 800 MHz (Verizon, US Cellular, and Alltel), 1900 MHz (T-mobile, Sprint and Metro PCS), and iDEN (Nextel). For those that aren’t sure what frequency their carrier utilizes, a Dual Band booster is probably the best choice. These amplifiers operate on both the 800 MHz and 1900 MHz bands, covering most carriers (with the exception of Nextel).

Basic cell boosters typically fall into the $200 -$250 price range and can be installed with minimal technical assistance.

Throttling vs Network Optimization of Traffic

Data Throttling vs Network Optimization of Traffic

The widespread use of smartphones, tablets and other sophisticated mobile devices – coupled with accelerating consumption of rich multimedia applications such as streaming video, live TV, social media, and instant video chat – is driving operators' evolution to LTE and other 4G network architectures for delivering mobile data services. Bytemobile's latest Mobile Analytics Report indicates that a tablet already generates three times the data volume generated by a comparable smartphone. With next-generation technology, including faster networks and larger devices supporting higher-resolution videos, the data generated from a single YouTube clip could increase by five times. Managing network capacity has become not only the single most important business challenge for operators and many are using different techniques.

Throttling mobile data is a method by reducing the speed of packets delivered to the user on the network.  Throttling is typically done when a user has exceeded the amount of data in a plan or is congesting the network by downloading too much video or content in an area.

Network optimization is a different technique used by the carriers.  It involves caching and compression to reduce the strain on the network.  The goal is to not reduced the user experience while preserving bandwidth on the network.

Bytemobile® Smart Capacity™ platforms enable mobile operators to deliver the best possible experience to their subscribers under all network conditions and to differentiate their services based on subscriber usage. The company's solutions have been deployed in the mobile networks of more than 130 operators worldwide to manage escalating demand for capacity due to video and other rich multimedia content and applications. With Smart Capacity, mobile operators can improve utilization of existing capacity and control operating expenses, while increasing revenue growth and profitability. Bytemobile is the industry leader in video optimization with 50 operators under contract.

Byte Mobile's US customers include: AT&T laptop division, Metro PCS, Alltel, Cricket and Sprint.  Verizon & T-Mobile are not currently customers and may be using a different method of detecting high data volume users and throttling them instead.  MetroPCS is the most widely deployed customer in the US to date.

ByteMobile competitors in include Flash Networks, Open Wave, Cisco, Ericsson, Allot, Sandvine.

To learn more, visit Bytemobile.com.

Consumer Reports Cell Service Ratings by City

Does this Consumer Reports survey of 66,000 people have any credibility for a cell phone service shopper? This survey represents a narrow demographic of respondents. Even Consumer Reports states their “Findings might not reflect the general U.S. population.” Also, it is indeed a survey and does not contain any empirical testing of the type that has made Consumer Reports the respected entity it is today.

But the main reason these results are not meaningful, or fair for that matter, is the lack of information regarding smartphone users vs. old school phone users, broken down by the wireless provider being rated. Why is this important? Smartphones demand a much higher quality of service and bandwidth to operate. Even Consumer Reports implies that users who use their wireless devices primarily for talking and texting (non smartphone customers) are easier to please than those who have smartphones, who require more demanding tasks such as web surfing and watching videos.

Consumer Reports does not provide any data as to which providers in the survey were rated by smartphone subscribers vs. non smartphone subscribers. Thus, their results are comparing apples-to-oranges. For example, is it meaningful or fair to compare Provider A who, for example, was rated by customers who primarily use smartphones vs. Provider B, who was rated by customers who primarily use non smartphones? I think not.

Based on my years of running this web site, I can conclude that some wireless providers have a larger percentage of smartphone subscribers than others. These smartphone subscribers are, by nature, sophisticated, demanding and particular. Other providers have a larger percentage of non smartphone subscribers who are typically lower paying, less sophisticated customers who are happy with status quo and using older phones. These customers, of course, would be happier with their service.

My take? Consumer Reports should divulge the percentage of smartphone and non smartphones subs rating each wireless provider. This key information would allow readers to make fair and meaningful comparisons.

Deadcellzones.com surveys an audience of similar size of 60,000 but does so on a monthly basis. Thus we survey an audience that is 10 times larger than consumer reports. DCZ also provide searchable maps with very specific geographic information about coverage problems. Ask yourself which is more useful as a consumer shopping for service in your area?

Wireless Competition Before the iPhone

Wireless Before the AT&T iPhone in 2006

The US wireless market was far more competitive before AT&T got the iPhone exclusive and this is how the market looked with AT&T / Cingular having 27% of the market with only 60 million customers.  Verizon Wireless had 26% of the market with 59M, Sprint / Nextel 23% 52M, T-Mobile 11% 25M, Alltel 5% 11M and US Cellular 2.5% with 6M.   How is wireless competition today and how have mergers consolidated the wireless industry?

The iPhone was the start of the smartphone revolution and AT&T took a year and half to negotiate with Apple to get an exclusive on it.   Its important to look back at the history of innovation before the iPhone came on to he market.  Verizon turned down the iPhone and the rest of the telecom industry greeted Apple with skepticism over whether they could make a phone that consumers would want since they were largely a PC company.  AT&T had to respond to competitive pressure 5 years ago and was forced to negotiate with Apple not knowing how successful the iPhone was going to be.

Here is a great example of how the telecom industry would have held us back from innovation if Steve Jobs had not required YouTube and other features be added to the iPhone.  Apple had to fight with AT&T in order to get the YouTube feature added on the deck and it took a year and half to get it.  Keep in mind we also had fewer dropped calls and better network service in 2006 as well.  So when a carrier like AT&T raises the argument that they will bring innovation in a duopoly competitive market they are lying.  The only thing carriers can do is protect their turf and try and keep up with the competition of WiFi that will soon surpass the capabilities of controlled and non-scalable 4G and LTE.  They will forever be dump pipes that transmit data and we should make sure that they have zero power to raise margins and prices for the sake of technology innovation and growth.

Apple iPhone had the vision which paved the way for Google to roll out Android with T-Mobile.   I think T-Mobile was the most brilliant of the carriers taking the risk and having the vision to launch Android.  The telecom industry was skeptical of course as well but look where we are now.  Its great to see the corrupt carriers losing control over data access while at the same time seeing the growth of unlicensed wireless data access WiFi and soon to be White Spaces.  The future is not longer about charge for data but about free wireless through location based advertising to get the rest of the World using smartphones who cannot afford it.  

History of US Wireless Telecom Consolidation

US Mergers and Acquisitions of Wireless Telecom in the US

List of companies consolidated by Sprint (NYSE: S), Verizon (NYSE: VZ), T-Mobile (DTEGY.PK) & AT&T (NYSE: T).  Here is a chart explaining the acquisitions and the year it took place.  This slide was contributed on the Rural Wireless Telecom webcast to help the industry understand why the AT&T and T-Mobile merger is too big!

Sprint: Nextel (2005).
Verizon:  Nynex (1995), PrimeCo (1999), Airtouch (1999), Vodafone Airtouch (1999), GTE (2000), Unicel (2007), Alltel (2009), Western Wireless (2005).
AT&T:  Bell South Mobility (2000), SBC (2000), Cingular (2004), Dobson Cellular Systems (2008), Centennial Wireless (2009).
T-Mobile: Founded as Voice Stream (1994), Omnipoint (2000), Aerial Communications (2000), Powertel (2001),  Changed the name to T-Mobile USA (2002), SunCom (2007).  

Rural Cellular Association Conference

Rural Cellular Coverage Map

Did you know there are almost 160+ rural cellular companies that compete with AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile and others?  RCA is an association representing rural wireless telecommunications providers across the United States. rca-usa.org  Many of these same rural wireless carriers could be your best friend in the near future as wireless services become increasingly more competitive and local.  We think there is an enormous opportunity for these rural carriers to flex media marketing muscle and compete against the larger multi-billion dollar marketing behemoths.  We will be there to meet regional wireless operators, service providers and expose them to our database of rural cell phone dead zones and dropped call areas.

18th Annual RCA Convention - APRIL 27-30, 2010 - Rio Hotel & Casino • Las Vegas • Nevada

Hot Topics at the Conference 
04/21/10 RCA Applauds FCC's Vote to Eliminate In-Market Roaming Exclusion
04/08/10 FCC Announces Broadband Action Agenda
04/02/10 FCC to Hold Workshop on Critical Infrastructure and Information Collection
03/31/10 RCA Comments on 700 MHz Mobile Equipment Capability

Exhibiting Companies Include: 
AeroVoice
Airway Technologies
Alcatel-Lucent
ArdaCOM
ARIS Software, Inc.
Associated Network Partners, Inc. (ANPI)
Astellia, Inc.
Brightpoint
Cellatel, LLC
CellCast Technologies, LLC
Cellebrite USA
ClearSky Mobile Media
Commnet Supply - Telmar Network Technology
CommSoft
Connectiv Solutions
DigiCell International, Inc.
Eastpointe Industries, Inc.
eSecuritel
Exalt Communications, Inc.
Fibrebond Corporation
Flash Technology
GetWireless, LLC
G Unwired, Inc.
HickoryTech - Information Solutions
Hyde Company
Info Directions
Interop Techonologies
Intrado
Jinny Software, Ltd.
JTWO Wireless, LLC
Kyocera Communications, Inc.
Lemko Corporation
LG Electronics Mobilecomm USA, Inc.
MACH Americas
Mid America Computer Corporation
Movius
National Information Solutions (NISC)
Nexlink Communications, LLC
OSG Billing Services
Pario Solutions
Personal Communciations Devices, LLC
Planet Cellular, Inc.
Platinum Wireless
Primal Technologies
PSA
RADWIN
Rosenberger LEONI Site Solutions
Sabre Industries, Inc.
SaskTel International
Sonoran Systems, Inc.
Syniverse Technologies
Talley, Inc.
Taqua
TeleCommunication Systems, Inc.
Telsasoft
Tempest Telecom Solutions, LLC
Trango Systems
Transaction Network Services
US Mobile Phones
USA Digital Communications
V-Comm, LLC
Velleros, Inc.
Walker & Associates
WAU, Inc.
Wes-Tec, Inc.
Wireless One
Xentris Wireless
YAM Wireless
Yap, Inc.

False Advertising of Cell Service Availability

David (deadzones.com) vs. Goliath (carriers)

After some increased blogger and social media exposure in rural areas of the US, we have started to notice a groundswell data from customers located in smaller US cities who are falling victim to continued false advertising from mainly the bigger carriers Verizon and AT&T.  We have decided to focus our efforts and begin exposing these areas more prominently in our blog and on Twitter @deadzones to show where consumers are getting screwed.  Our goal is to raise the level of exposure in these neglected smaller cities in order to help improve service in the local area.  The following towns and cities are just some of the areas listed on dead zones map in the last 90 days that specifically highlight that Verizon's Coverage Map is making false claims.

Where Do Verizon's Coverage Maps Lie?
Olinda, California - "No service Verizon even though the coverage map says excellent coverage"
Gresham, Michigan - "Dead zone your coverage maps are a lie"
Bridger, Montana - "Map shows coverage, the whole town is a dead zone."
Madison, North Carolina - "How does Verizon get away with their coverage maps that certainly do not reflect actual coverage???"
Lake Mack Forrest Hills, Florida  - "Bad inside and outside. It was the same with Sprint, but Sprint's coverage map showed I would have trouble Verizon's coverage map shows I should have a full signal. Verizon wants to blame the phone I am using they are FOS."

Verizon Consumer Generated Coverage Map

Why have we picked on Verizon? Because they are the most aggressive about hyping their coverage maps and someone needs to make them accountable to their claims. We will get to AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and others as well in due time. Here are links to other carriers coverage maps that we recommend you check before claiming their coverage maps lie on our site: AT&T Sprint/Nextel, T-Mobile, Tracfone, Alltel, US Cellular, Cricket Comm, Qwest Wireless, Metro PCS