RadioShack no-contract wireless plans start at $25; $60 for everything

[Shawn Knight]

Last week we heard rumors that RadioShack was preparing to launch a no-contract wireless service on September 5 powered by regional carrier Cricket Wireless. A leaked memo provided a wealth of information including the fact that select phones would come with a free 8GB microSD card but at the time, there was no mention of pricing.

Now that we are just over a week away from the scheduled announcement, the missing pieces of the puzzle are falling into place. TheShack will offer both feature phones and smartphones on no-contract plans. Feature phone pricing starts at $25 for unlimited messaging and 300 minutes. $10 more per month gets the same package with a 1,000 minute allotment.

Smartphone packages start at $50 per month which includes unlimited messaging, voice, full song downloads from the Muve Music service and 1GB of 3G data. Extra data is available in bundles of 50MB for $1. A $60 month fee will bump the data limit up to 2.5GB per month and enable mobile hotspots (tethering), visual voicemail, unlimited international text / picture / video and unlimited directory assistance.

When compared directly with Cricket’s no-contract plans, you may or may not save with RadioShack – it all depends on what services you are after. Cricket’s $35 plan gives you unlimited minutes whereas TheShack limits you to just 1,000 each month. In the smartphone category, $55 at Cricket will get you unlimited everything and 2.5GB of wireless data but that doesn’t include access to Muve Music. That feature cost an extra $10 but is included in both RadioShack smartphone rate plans.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/49935-radioshack-no-contract-wireless-plans-start-at-25-60-for-everything.html

 

[Guest]

Why is this news? Things must be slow at Techspot.

 

[oldikes]

Really guest? are you serious?
and the second I saw this wasent actually unlimited data I stopped caring.

 

[howzz1854]

I asked this when Virgin/Cricket rolled out and no one answered. I am still wondering if one can purchase a used Iphone 4 and sign up with Cricket, or Virgin. some say it's do-able, while others say it's not. so which is it. can Techspot test this out? or find this out? because that's the REAL saving for anyone interested in this, is to get an affordable phone upfront, and an affordable monthly payment, without contract. now that'll be a real story.

 

[Guest]

Using flashed iphone is banned on both carriers. but if you do not mind violating TOS, jailbreaking and getting your hands dirty with some tricky to find phone hacking tools it's possible. you could also pay someone to do it for you. these people can be found at the smaller family run cricket stores that specialize in flashing and buying/selling used phones.

 

[Guest]

Banned? That isn't true by any stretch and many Cricket resellers will gladly flash an iPhone to Cricket service. I know many who use one on the service.

 

[spydercanopus]

Being locked into a carrier when you buy a phone at nearly a thousand bucks should be illegal. I want this deal with my iphone.

 

[Guest]

Many cricket dealer do indeed flash iphones.

but they have recieved an email from cricket HQ that the iphone is specifically banned and they risk losing there dealership if they get caught, there is currently no 'block' in place that prevents putting non-cricket iphones into the system but they are officially banned. I believe cricket had to aggree to this before apple would allow them to sell iphone. the speculation is that apple knows the phone would have to be jailbroken and see that in a negative way.

p.s. I own a cricket store.

 

[Tygerstrike]

Actually from what I understand, the data will be unlimited just throttled like every prepaid phone carrier out there. I kinda enjoy the fact that RadioShack is spreading their wings a bit. I know RadioShack has been around almost 100 years. A company doesnt get to be in business that long sticking with the same old products and same old business plan. And to answer the questions about prepaid carriers and your own equiptment. Generally the answer is no. You wouldnt be allowed to use your equiptment on any prepaid carriers system, not unless say you had a old Boost phone and wanted to put it on your account.
@spyder
How exactly do you think the contract carriers are making the money back when you get a phone at a steeply discounted rate. Most Smartphones start out around 4-5 hundred dollars. The customer gets the phone at that cheap price because they are signing a new contract. Otherwise you the consumer would have to pay the FULL retail price of a phone. Personally, no phone IMO is worth the actual retail price. Look at any Verizon smartphone. They are almost always 800.00 not including tax. So I get locked into a 18-24 month contract and get a phone cheap. Most contract carriers wont let you start any service by bringing your own equiptment in to start up new service. Its their game, if you want to use their service, you have to play by their rules.

 

[howzz1854]

So this whole prepaid thing doesn't really work then. there's no real benefit if you can't use any iphone, not without jail breaking the thing. the question is do you pay all your bills for the next two years now, or over the period of two years.

 

[Guest]

I purchased an AT&T iphone off Craigslist for one of my kids. I ordered a SIM card from the StraightTalk web site for $15.00. The phone costs about $49.00 a month ($45.00, plus tax) on a month-by-month basis. If you purchase 3, 6 or 12 months in advance, the cost may go as low as $41.00 a month before taxes.

 

[howzz1854]

I purchased an AT&T iphone off Craigslist for one of my kids. I ordered a SIM card from the StraightTalk web site for $15.00. The phone costs about $49.00 a month ($45.00, plus tax) on a month-by-month basis. If you purchase 3, 6 or 12 months in advance, the cost may go as low as $41.00 a month before taxes.

but what about Data plan and text. can you surf the web and send text as well?