Republic Wireless has gone live with new plans that refund customers for unused data.
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“The cellular industry, largely dominated by 2 giant companies, has done a brilliant job convincing people that they need huge buckets of cellular data”. Morken cites estimates that the average consumer wastes about $200 in unused data per year.
In their place, Republic is offering plans that offer customers a refund on any high-speed data paid for but unused.
For example if a user has a 500MB plan which costs $7.50 and they only use 200MB of data in that particular month they will only be required to pay $3.50 on top of the $10 per month for unlimited talk and text instead of $17.50.
Current customers will be able to keep their unlimited data plans, while new customers will have to choose one of the new options.
$10 for the “Base Plan” for unlimited Wi-Fi voice, texting and data, plus unlimited cellular voice and texting. That said, those using more than 2GB of cellular data could end up paying more with the new plans, Republic acknowledges. Verizon and AT&T have also dropped unlimited data plans for new customers. “This industry is long overdue for an overhaul”.
“For the big guys who have a lot to lose, there’s significant barriers to this”, he said.
Republic, which initially launched the promotion in April for select customers, claims its customers’ average monthly bill is less than $15 per month and that a majority of those customers use “much less than 1 gigabyte of cellular data per month”. “Our customers are not data misers”, he said.
Republic Wireless, a division of Bandwidth, headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, is spearheading a wireless freedom movement to return value and control of the smartphone experience to members by leveraging the power of both WiFi and cellular networks.
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$5 per month for unlimited Wi-Fi voice, texting and data. When outside of WiFi coverage, the smartphone works just like a typical smartphone on the cellular networks of national CDMA carriers.
