Anyone here been on the beta?
Thoughts on what they are offering now?
For a really low use line, 50 min./text per mo. ($1.50/mo.) + 1gb ($2.10/yr.) data for a year would average out as $3.67/mo. including the $1.99/mo. "platform fee". So, depending on your taxes it could still come to over $5/mo. average.
Meh?
Unlimited/Unlimited/1 GB per mo. would be $8.59/mo. before taxes. Again, meh?
The data flexibility & rollover seems like a nice feature, especially for those whose data use varies widely from month to month and $2.10 per GB is pretty reasonable for a by the GB price I guess. Would be nice to have a one time 5 or 10 GB purchase available for less.
Promise of more min./text options or flexibility to come.
Just for curiosity's sake
Tried getting it with my 'retired' Truphone device & GP was 'pending' for ~15 minutes while I watched the battery getting visibly drained - then it finally started to get the 65MB app.
Finally it did install & gave no more info than its cruddy site - tried signing up via G acc't - but it failed with an error - will try it again later.
Transparency is NOT a big part of this, and seeing this latest fad of so many things CLAIMING to use 'AI' is strong grounds for distrust IMO.
I'm certain that those giants with massive computing capacity can claim to have 'AI' & maybe even quantum computers - but it seems equally certain that the 'little guys' are just claiming & faking it.
If it is so very simple to have 'AI' then we all would have it via our home PCs (vs. devices with indirect access like Alexa...)
OK - that's enough outta me - recharging that phone now...
Tried logging in there via G over the recent days & it failed with an error message every time - so it was time to give up that effort.
App removed...useless.
Haven't been on the beta, so these are thoughts on what they're offering.
It seems to me that for low-end use, they have very scant advantages over Tracfone or Red Pocket's annual plans:
It isn't an annual plan. For some folks that's important.
Naturally, they also aren't Red Pocket or Tracfone. Some people won't touch those with a ten-foot pole. (I think we might actually have someone on these forums who has acknowledged that on paper, Tracfone annual plans look nearly ideal for them, but their experience with Tracfone customer service is such that they will never go back.)
Red Pocket's $30/y plan is T-Mobile only, and their cheapest annual plan that offers Verizon is $100/y. (The $60 plan on T-Mo or AT&T is about the same minutes and texts and double the data of the last-I-checked-$40 Tracfone plan, but monthly allotments instead of annual buckets.) Network might be important, and the monthly reset may be more of a problem for some people than for others.
As a side note, that $100 plan is roughly competitive with the unlimited/unlimited/1GB on MobileX - slightly worse in my opinion, since more of the data is likely to go to waste (plus on MobileX, if you don't need that much, you can just buy less) and the Red Pocket plan is only unlimited texts and 1000 minutes. But at that point you're no longer what I think of as "low usage" anyway.
When it comes to the actual allotments and usage, the main thing MobileX seems to handle better than either of those competitors is irregular but large spikes in allotment needs, especially data. If your pattern doesn't fit under Red Pocket's monthly allotments, Red Pocket loses out quickly. Tracfone is a little better at handling spikes because the buckets aren't use-it-or-lose-it every month, and it covers more texts and minutes than the minimal MobileX plan, but the moment you need more data than your 3GB for the year the Tracfone price advantage basically evaporates. Redrotors said $2.10 per GB was "pretty reasonable...I guess," but I don't think I can remember seeing a way to get data that cheap on a plan with this low of a minimum annual cost in a very long time.
Meanwhile, if your usage pattern is such that these super-cheap plans are problematically low for you on talk and text, but at least eight months out of the year you can get by with essentially no data, then TextNow starts looking appealing by comparison.
So my verdict? Overall, MobileX looks most appealing for people who have low but widely varying needs from month to month, but who are likely enough to exceed 3GB of data total over the entire year (or sufficiently opposed to Tracfone for other reasons) that they're willing to try this instead.
Nice analysis scriptninja. Thanks for your take on the data price info.
Will be interesting to see what comes of the promised text/min. options.
Another low price plan is the T-Mo based Hello mobile $5 (inc. tax/fees)/mo. unlimited/unlimited/500mb per mo.
Haven't ever used Hello, CS reports like a rough ride for those missing the TF experience.
It also lacks the flexibility that a spike pattern data user would want.
As I see it - this thing is 100% demanding of access via its app - which refused to ever log in at all for me - poorly made s/w perhaps ??
Our cheap VZ access comes via Twigby & as non-data users it is great, reliable - and whenever its self-service options do not suffice, just using their chat fixes things very easily.
If this thing was a bit less hokey (IMO) and/or young, it might be attractive - but since my own phone usage has dropped to just about zero...
I also have spare, older devices set up with Freedompop & Textnow 100% free plans - and have to remember to make a call every so often !!
Sillier still - I tried out the wallymart 9.97 'free' deal & found it to be quite iffy in our area - I don't even know what became of that SIM anymore, which both amuses & amazes me.
The FP & TN things do work pretty well & would be way more useful to me if I actually went anywhere very much - but I don't anymore.
