Prepaid Wireless Phones: The History and Future Projection

Prepaid Wireless Phones The History and Future Projection 1993-1994 Andrew Wise develops and patents the first prepaid mobile phone service, Banana Cellular. 1994 (houston cellular Houston Cellular starts Call Track, which popularized prepaid services. 1996 A team led by Massimo Sarmi creates a recharge able prepaid SIM card. Prepaid SIMS expand the market to new users with limited budgets or bad D credit; like immigrants, children, and tourists. SIM 1996 TRACFONE de prepaid wireless Topp Telecom Inc. is established, and goes on to provide service for Tracfone, NET10, Safelink Wire- less, Straight Talk, and Senior Value Cellphone. 1999 cricket Cricket Communications, Inc. is founded by Leap Wireless. They become the first to offer unlimited features and services in the prepaid wireless industry, with no contracts and no credit checks required. LOCUS 2001 TELECOMMUNICATIONS, INC. Locus Telecommunications becomes a top wireless reseller, with over 70,000 customers. 2004 7-Eleven, Inc. becomes the first retailer to start its owm prepaid service. 2005 .. T.Mobile- T-Mobile offers prepaid wireless services with T-Mobile To Go. 2008 Trumpet Mobile's wireless services become avail- able at over 4,000 RadioShacks, nationwide. 2009 RIM's BlackBerry is intro- duced as the first smart- BlackBerry phone available in the prepaid wireless market. What is most important to prepaid customers? 24% Call Quality 6% Customer Service 19% Company Image 8% Service Plan Options 11% O Initial Activation 17% Service Cost Account Management 15% Overall Satısfaction Average Minutes Used per Month Out of 1,000 points, during a customer study Traditional per-minute pricing plans: Prepaid customers: 717 233 Flat-rate pricing plans (unlimited minutes): Post-paid customers: 764 543 Comparing Countries The prepaid percentage of the wireless market: 66% 90% 33% 10% Italy UK France USA Prepaid is Still Growing In the US 65% of new users in the US selected for prepaid services in 2009, bringing the total up to 10% of all users. Sources t-mobile.com/Company/Companylnfo.aspx?tp=Abt_Tab_CompanyOverview&tsp=Abt_Sub_History signonsandiego.com/news/2010/apfivelenen N KO 200809 9-to-prepaid/ businesscenter.jdpower.com/news ehow.com/about_4795929_prepaid-cell-phone-plans.html locustelecom.com/about/history.shtml ensquared.com/content/prepaid-history.htm en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TracFone_Wireless en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leap_Wireless msnbc.msn.com/id/29775655/ns/business-consumer_news/ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boost_Mobile voices.washingtonpost.com/fasterforward/2009/07/sprint_nextel_buying_virgin_mo.html atmmarketplace.com/article/134876/7-Eleven-intros-proprietary-prepaid-wireless newmillenniumresearch.org/news/033110_prepaid_trends_news_release.pdf