America Movil Aquiring Page Plus

[fatclue_98]

It's been confirmed that America Movil is in the process of buying Page Plus. For those of you who've never heard of them, they are the parent company of Tracfone, Net 10, Straight Talk and as of last May, Simple Mobile. AM is owned by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim and he's buying up a lot of the pre-paids in the US. What are your thoughts? Page Plus is a great Verizon MVNO that has the best, IMO, policies for BYOD out there. With the exception of a few handsets such as LTE & Blackberries, you can bring just about any Verizon-branded device. Surely there are some of you that have Trophies on PP and I'd like to see what your reactions are. BTW, maybe it's because I'm Hispanic (Cuban-born) but I think "Carlos Slim" is an absolute baller name for a magnate.

 

[Laura Knotek]

The only thing I don't understand is why the separate brand names are being continued after the acquisitions. Why not combine all the GSM prepaid under one name and all the CDMA prepaid under another name?

 

[fatclue_98]

The only thing I don't understand is why the separate brand names are being continued after the acquisitions. Why not combine all the GSM prepaid under one name and all the CDMA prepaid under another name?

I would imagine it's because of the carriers. The GSM side has mostly T-Mobile but still has a few AT&T holdovers. I'm not sure either carrier would be happy if one division has crappy service and numerous complaints and be lumped into the same group. But you're right, there should be some consolidation. If anything, to remove the "7-11" stigma from Tracfone and Net10.

 

[krycek1984]

Prepaid isn't all it is cracked up to be, which is why tons of people don't switch. My brother had page plus until last week and they were terrible. Prepaid often ( not always) has lower quality customer service and the network isn't always as good as the Verizon, att, etc network they buy space on.

 

[fatclue_98]

Prepaid isn't all it is cracked up to be, which is why tons of people don't switch. My brother had page plus until last week and they were terrible. Prepaid often ( not always) has lower quality customer service and the network isn't always as good as the Verizon, att, etc network they buy space on.

It's the same exact network. If you have bad service with Page Plus 3G, you're going to have bad service with Verizon. Either your brother had a problem with the radio in his phone or he lived/worked in a marginal Verizon coverage area.

 

[Laura Knotek]

It's the same exact network. If you have bad service with Page Plus 3G, you're going to have bad service with Verizon. Either your brother had a problem with the radio in his phone or he lived/worked in a marginal Verizon coverage area.

That's true.

The major difference is customer service. The VZW rep most likely is based in the US, not outsourced overseas.

 

[krycek1984]

It's the same exact network. If you have bad service with Page Plus 3G, you're going to have bad service with Verizon. Either your brother had a problem with the radio in his phone or he lived/worked in a marginal Verizon coverage area.

The tower by his house was "not working" according to pageplus, no prob with his phone. but my service was fine. They claimed it was due to the tornadoes in OK - mind you we live in Cleveland Ohio!

Verizon subscribers always take precedence so if there is a capacity or technical issue mvno's and roamers feel the effects first.

 

[fatclue_98]

The tower by his house was "not working" according to pageplus, no prob with his phone. but my service was fine. They claimed it was due to the tornadoes in OK - mind you we live in Cleveland Ohio!

Verizon subscribers always take precedence so if there is a capacity or technical issue mvno's and roamers feel the effects first.

Geez, first Laura and now you. What is it with me finding Clevelanders!

 

[palandri]

I hope the FTC looks at it and stops it. We have antitrust laws to prevent this. If you don't prevent it, it's just like playing the board game Monopoly.

 

[fatclue_98]

I hope the FTC looks at it and stops it. We have antitrust laws to prevent this. If you don't prevent it, it's just like playing the board game Monopoly.

According to Fierce Wireless and The Verge, it's at the regulatory approval stage. This is the kind of feedback I was looking for. There is a petition on Crackberry to stop this but it only had like a hundred signatures as of last week. That ain't gonna cut it. In spite of threats of monopolies, T-Mobile almost let AT&T buy them up. Softbank is a stone's throw from acquiring Sprint and they're a Japanese firm. Maybe I'm too jaded but I'm seeing dollar signs trumping law.

 

[Laura Knotek]

The tower by his house was "not working" according to pageplus, no prob with his phone. but my service was fine. They claimed it was due to the tornadoes in OK - mind you we live in Cleveland Ohio!

Verizon subscribers always take precedence so if there is a capacity or technical issue mvno's and roamers feel the effects first.

The rep obviously either doesn't know or made up some kind of silly excuse. It has nothing to do with tornadoes in OK.

That's as bad as when I used to have a landline and AT&T said it wasn't working since rats chewed the line. I also had DSL at the time which did work, so the rat excuse made no sense. It had to be a problem at the central office.

 

[krycek1984]

Geez, first Laura and now you. What is it with me finding Clevelanders!

that's cuz Cleveland rocks!

 

[Joseph Cline]

You are sadly mistaken. The customer service is located in New York and they help more then verizon does. Also My friend has Verizon and I have Page plus and we went up into the mountains and he lost service before I did because of the 4g. 4g sucks and ruined phones because it came out before the networks was ready. So Page Plus is better on both accounts. I have had PP for 10 months and had no more issue than when I was with verizon as far as customer service.

 

[inteller]

American Movil will eventually combine all of these acquisitions under one name. Straight Talk is a Wal-Mart partnership which has to expire before they can restructure it. NET10 is effectively Striaght Talk for non Wal-Mart shoppers anyways, but now with a cap. I predict Tracfone will go away...hell Simple Mobile practically has since they bought it.