TL;DR Stuff about Pricing
Unreal Mobile has made a great case for the lowest cost and most simple Mobile Phone service. Everything; Talk, Text, and Data for $10 per month. No gimmicks, no promos, no one-time-deals, just ten dollars for Unlimited everything.Now, if they're offering all this for so little, why cannot any other carrier do the same? Well, like every other carrier, the data (or lack there of) is the catch. You get ONE Gigabyte of data at full speed and then everything else is 2G or 512 Kbps. It is unlimited 2G, you will get all the content you can take at half-a-megabit per second; which if you think about it, is 10 x faster than an old dial-up modem.
A little background on Unreal Mobile
Unreal Mobile is FreedomPOP, which is Sprint. FreedomPOP is the company that for nearly 8 years has offered a FREE 500-2000 MB of data to anyone who would sign up.Originally, they rode atop Clearwire 4G which was purchased by Sprint in 2014 and subsequently shutdown in 2016. Through what might seem like a very simple ideal, FreedomPOP has managed to continue to exist in the bottom tier of Mobile ISPs, by giving away data for free.
The Simplicity of the UI
Unreal Mobile likes to keep it simple with the User Interface. It is very practical and visually basic; appealing if you think simple is good. This interface is responsive as well and scales to fit any device, be it phone, tablet, or desktop.
The tabs across the top, help the user find the basic feature sets of their bill, usage, plan, service, devices, and propagation (sharing). As of this post the sharing feature has not been enabled. If you dig into the tabs, you'll find even more ways to save on data use, plus a feature that Unreal Mobile touts to get away from advertisements. I personally, wanted to get back to using 2G only, to save all the Faster speed data that I could because they let it roll over, month-to-month.
Comparison to other carriers
The kicker wit Unreal Mobile is the price, but why do no other Mobile ISPs provide all this for as little. First off, Unreal Mobile (FreedomPOP) is backed by Sprint. Sprint had, for about a month, a deal on Unlimited Everything for $15. It too offered minimal data at LTE speeds and then the unlimited came at 2G thereafter. But that deal was for a limited time.Every other carrier is almost the same as Unreal Mobile in that they offer a small amount of LTE (1 or 2 GB) and the remainder is at slower speeds. While each carrier has a slightly different deal, each usually runs at least $50 / month with almost the same features as Unreal Mobile.
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| Source: CNET (https://www.cnet.com/news/verizon-att-t-mobile-sprint-unlimited-data-plan-comparison/) |
What's the Catch?
How can Unreal Mobile sell Unlimited Everything for $10 / month, and yet no one else offers such a deal? The reality is that the four major carriers do in fact offer these deals, but they do not advertise them. They know that they could sell these features for this low price, but they have spent hundreds of millions in advertising to convince consumers that there are more features available if they pay more.End Game
Unreal Mobile is a very simple ideal. It does have other, more costly plans ranging from $10 to $40 and offering more high-speed LTE data, upwards of 10 GB for the top tier. It is more effectively a mobile phone plan for those who use very little data, or just those who want to text and talk. Of course anyone can use WiFi for Data, but if WiFi isn't always accessible, it might be good to go with a bigger carrier. Or if you're cool with 2G speeds (512 kbps) all the time.The end game on this is that Unreal Mobile is trying to tap the bottom of the market, those with the least amount of liquid funds. It could be that this phone is just a backup phone or for teenagers whose parents won't get them a phone. In any case Unreal Mobile has made the proposal that it is possible to get an unlimited mobile phone plan for almost nothing.
Unreal is TERRIBLE ! The can not port a number out, they sell used garbage phones while never telling you the phones are used. They can not fix simple issues of which I've had about eight. TERRIBLE SERVICE, phone worked for two days and is now been DEAD. REPORTING THEM AND GETTING REFUND !
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry that you're having such a tough time with Unreal. The phone I purchased did seem a bit old, not sure if it was refurbished or not. The service is very cheap, I would expect it to possibly be low quality at the prices that they've set.
DeleteSame problem here NO ability to port my old number. Their customer service is poor and only during weekday work hours.......NO EVENING HELP OR WEEKENDS!
ReplyDeleteI have tried several times to get my number ported with NO success.
I didn't even know that number portability was an option. I can see now why you might be having that problem.
DeleteYes, the customer support is poor, if barely available. I can't say that I often ask for customer support from my Mobile Phone co. Come to think of it, I may have become a bit jaded by the support offered by most Mobile Phone cos.
I did not cover the customer support of Unreal Mobile, only the service features of the phone.
My comment wasn't to put down your post, just to add my experience to the Jack's experience. I tried again on the 20th to get help and after 20+ minutes on the phone was told that people are working on it again and he would call back "that day after hours if necessary" to help me.
ReplyDeleteGuess what?? NO RETURN CALL and just an email saying they are sorry and working on it again..... with another ticket number. Of course it is Saturday so nothing will happen until Monday AGAIN.
The option to "port" or keep your old phone number has been around for almost two decades now. IT IS NOT NEW TECHNOLOGY!!
Ok, sorry, I thought that the vehemency in the use of CAPS was implying ill-will. But I take your point; it's not the greatest service, just the cheapest.
DeleteJust an update... after 13 emails and 7 phone calls I finally got my number ported over. The downside is that I am without receiving or sending texts for 3 days....sooo I cannot set up some of my old apps that require a text code be sent until then.
DeleteThey did offer me 50% ($5) off my next month's plan at least. Hopefully I wont need any more customer service and can navigate everything on my own. The low cost is a bonus.
Wow. Maybe you should be writing the article about Unreal Mobile. I think that your experience would make a good blog / vlog post. People love to read the nitty gritty of tough situations. In fact it often generates more commentary, keeps people coming back to your site
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