Verizon Buys Tracfone for $6.25 billion

The mobile operator Tracfone isn’t exactly a household name, but it does have about 21 million customers in the US. Soon, those customers will fall under the Verizon umbrella, as Verizon just announced it is purchasing Tracfone from its owner America Movil. 

Tracfone has long worked in the US as a prepaid wireless MVNO, leasing wireless spectrum from some of the country's largest mobile carriers including Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile. It also operates under a variety of brands, including Straight Talk and Walmart Family Phones, and has a broad distribution presence of more than 90,000 locations at stores such as CVS, Target, and Best Buy.

That being said, it's not clear how Tracfone will work once the contract with Verizon is done. But there's plenty of time to find out, as Verizon claims it won't wait until the second half of 2021 for the deal to finalize.

This isn't the only MVNO to change hands this year — T-Mobile had to get rid of Sprint's Boost Mobile brand as a result of the T-Mobile / Sprint merger. In early July Dish picked it up for $1.4 billion. By contrast, for Tracfone, Verizon pays $3,125 billion in cash and the same sum in Verizon's stock.

Several mergers in recent years have led to an increasingly concentrated wireless industry in the U.S., with the bulk of control. 

Tracfone's top brands include: 

• Tracfone
• Net 10 Wireless
• Total Wireless
• Walmart Family Mobile
• Straight Talk
• Simple Mobile

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

Prepaid Wireless Networks Uncovered (MVNO's)

Which Network Are You Really On?

Unlike the major carriers (ie. Verizon Wireless, Sprint / Nextel, T-Mobile, AT&T), Amp'd, Boost Mobile, TracFone, MetroPCS & Virgin Mobile do not own its own network of cell towers. These prepaid cellular phone companies are all MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operator). MVNOs buy large batches of minutes from the traditional wireless carriers, piggybacking on their national networks. Amp'd leases Verizon's network, Boost Mobile uses Nextel's network, TracFone uses AT&T's network and Virgin uses Sprint's network. Hence, the reason we do not list these carriers in our list of coverage complaints. If you experience dead zone while using any prepaid phones please submit their respective network operator.

Walmart & Target Indoor Reception Problems

Does Your Local Walmart or Target Store Have Cell Reception Problems Indoors?

I was shocked to learn after doing some database mining this week that Target and Walmart had some of the most complaints listed in our dead zones database.  Walmart (4,000 US stores) has over 20 locations listed as dead zones and Target (1,700+ US stores) has 15 locations listed as having poor reception in our consumer-generated coverage database.  This can't be a good thing especially for Walmart who recently announced a partnership offering TracFone pre-paid wireless plans.  These retailers are going to sell millions of cell phones yet many of them do not have good cell phone reception indoors.  I am sure we are not even scratching the surface of other Walmart and Target stores that also have horrible coverage.  Ironically, there was only one Best Buy store (1,000 US stores) listed in the database so they must be doing something different with their in-building coverage. 

To submit a coverage problem in a store, first, search our database and find out if your store is listed.  If not, submit the reception problem by dragging a pin into the location of the store on the map.  Cell phone reception can be improved indoors but someone needs to be informed that it doesn't work first!