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Comment by jcastro | Hacker News Reader

It's hard to break the mental model of subsidies. As an example:

Last month my wife dropped her old phone and it broke, and I got her a Nexus 4 for $299 and we signed up for simplemobile (which is a Tmobile MVNO) for about $90 a month for the both of us.

Our previous bill from Tmo was $130 a month, a full $40 more AND on contract. Since it took a few days to wait for the Nexus she was asking "Why don't we just go to the store and get the free phones instead? Why spend all this money on a fancy phone?"

I'm glad tmo is doing this, but I think they will need to market it in such a way that it is obvious to consumers that they will save money in the long run.

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Nexus 4 + t-mobile off contract is just fantastic. I knocked $50/month off of my monthly bill from Verizon (and got more in return). The thing pays for itself in 6 months.

I now pay less for voice+data with Ting than I did for voice+text, with an employer discount, on Verizon. Furthermore, the phone (refurb Optimus S) is so inexpensive, I don't have to worry about destroying it.

Sensible pricing is starting to win.

Until MVNOs allow roaming, the idea that they are an acceptable substitute for real cellular coverage is dangerous and we need to stop spreading it.

There are ENTIRE STATES and some major cities where networks like SimpleMobile have zero coverage. Green Bay, WI, for example, is big enough for an NFL team, but if you find yourself there with a SimpleMobile phone, it will be a brick. Be prepared for the fact that you cannot call roadside assistance on a cross-country road trip, from a suburb that's too far away from town, or from some minor population centers. Forget small towns (I have some extended family in fairly remote areas).

If you stay in San Francisco at all times, I'm sure SimpleMobile is great, but it would not be a very good idea to do this in the Midwest. Maybe if there was still a cost savings when you factored in an emergency dumbphone on a strong network like Verizon.

Why pay an extra $480 a year for emergency service, when you can get it for $30 a year?

$30 is what PagePlus will charge you in a year of prepaid service, using the per-minute pay-as-you-go plan. You get access to the entire Verizon network at 10 cents per minute, plus roaming access at 29 cents per minute.

In fact, this is even better for emergencies than postpaid service. Now you have access to both the GSM and CDMA 2G networks.

I use StraightTalk, and I'm pretty sure they use both AT&T and T-Mobile. If you have coverage on either of those (at the very least, on AT&T), I should have coverage as well.

Agreed. I was pretty resistent to the new pricing when the rep was explaining it to me because i just knew there had to be some fine print. Needless to say i'm very happy with the plan change and i'm paying much less than i was. I did have to pay a little more up front for the phone but it was worth it.

Did you explain to her the $40 a month difference? And did she get's it?

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