Walmart mobile service: numbers add up?

Walmart might be a great place to stock up on things like washing and cases of soda. But it is also the place you want to go get the services of voice and data communications for your mobile phone? Giant retail discount certainly hope so, as announced today a new service called mobile phone Walmart family Mobile. Post-paid cellular offers competitive discounts for consumers but Walmart's new service does not have a few drawbacks.
Walmart family mobile cellular discount retailer first foray; it already offers two pre-paid plans. The retailer also sells a wide range of mobile phones and Smartphones, including the Apple iPhone.Walmart Mobile family plan is the first to be branded "Walmart", but despite this branding, Walmart is not functional cellular network; plan would work in network t-mobile in the u.s., Walmart said in a statement.
Since making the switch to cellular communication plan Walmart? Let's do the math to figure out what is good--and what is not so great--about Walmart offering.
PRO: unlimited service, low prices
Walmart family Mobile offers unlimited voice minutes and unlimited texting for $ 45 a month for the first line service. additional lines are $ 25 per month. these prices are much cheaper than what large national carriers for similar plans.
As a point of comparison, AT&T charges $ 69.99 per month for unlimited calls and an extra $ 20 a month for unlimited messages.It's $ 89.99 per month--so much like what Verizon Wireless charges per month for a customized plan that offers unlimited talking and texting.
This is why Walmart family Mobile has to offer "family of three save up to $ 1200 per year, compared with the national unlimited talk and text plans, Walmart said in a statement.
PRO: no contract required
Unlike most "post-paid" cellphone plans--where you cover after using it, not to--Walmart and plan does not require that you commit to long-term service contract. actually, you don't have to take a contract at all if you dodge the signing of two years of work with a carrier like AT&T or Verizon Wireless, the freedom that allows Walmart plan will be very appealing.You can cancel your service at any time, without fear of the hefty cancellation fee.
CON: more expensive phones
The downside of cellular contract-free is always more expensive phones, and it looks like Walmart. According to the Wall Street Journal, one through Walmart family of mobile phones will Motorola Cliq XT, which will sell for $ 249.This is OK, if you believe that T-Mobile sells Cliq XT for $ 330, when you do not sign a service contract.But if you are willing to enter into a contract with T-Mobile, you can get free Cliq XT.
PRO: the numbers add up
But to get free Cliq XT, you need to subscribe to one of T-Mobile even other plans, which start at $ 79.99 per month for an individual plan.This price includes 500 minutes, unlimited voice texting and unrestricted use of the Web.
If you opt for mobile Walmart family, you'll pay $ 45 a month for your first line of the service.As already mentioned that the price includes unlimited voice minutes and unlimited texting plan offers more than T-Mobile in this regard, but Walmart and plan does not include any data coverage that you need to surf the Web or download applications.
CON: no data without borders
So how much data cost you at Walmart Mobile plan family? Data will be sold in the buckets that never expire and can be used by all users on a family plan, "said Walmart. Each activation of the account will come with a 100 MB of data, you can purchase the data upfront WebPaks that card account with 200 MB WebPak. data will cost $ 10, 500 MB will cost $ 25 and 1 GB for $ 40.
PRO: Cheaper data service
Although it is convenient to have a plan that offers an unlimited amount of data is not always the cheapest option. I took a look at my data as Walmart plan would work for me: I am using iPhone 4 and consider myself a moderate consumers data--I certainly don't shy away from any application using AT&T's 3 g network over the past six months I've never exceeds 160 MB of data per month--and most of the months, I was under this amount, which means that the use of Walmart, 500 MB of data can be purchased for $ 25, and it will last more than three months is less than $ 10 per month.
UNKNOWN: select your phone
Statement by Walmart announces new service notes that the absence of a treaty means that a user can upgrade your phone anytime they wish. He also said the service will offer phones from Samsung, Motorola, Nokia, "including telephones with Android operating system, QWERTY keyboard, touch screens and other facilities".
Walmart is not specified how many phones, it will offer and how much each will cost. we have to wait until the service officially launches this month.