Amp’d Mobile Inc. has rounded out its service offering with a prepaid play that began selling last week, touting its new pay-as-you-go service as “the first and only pay-as-you-go 3G wireless phone service.”
Amp’d Mobile’s prepaid offering charge customers 10 cents per minute for voice calling, $1 per day for unlimited push-to-talk service, plus access to a variety of the content services that are at the heart of the mobile virtual network operator’s service.
The $1 per-day price for unlimited PTT sets it up for direct competition with Boost Mobile L.L.C., Sprint Nextel Corp.’s lifestyle-focused MVNO that runs on the carrier’s iDEN network. Boost has the initial upper hand in that its installed customer base numbers in the millions and that the PTT service is interoperable with the more than 17 million Sprint Nextel iDEN customers.
Amp’d Mobile will charge 10 cents per text message and 25 cents per multimedia message, although picture and video messaging are described on the MVNO’s Web site as “coming soon”-which means August, according to Michael McAnallen, director of systems and services for Amp’d Mobile.
“Ten cents [per minute for voice calling] is really very competitive, and the content offering ought to be really attractive to people within our demographic. You can’t get it anywhere else in the U.S.,” said McAnallen.
Full-length music downloads also will be available for 99 cents, ringtones for $1.50 or $2, and games will start at $6. However, the fine print on Amp’d Mobile’s Web site indicates that those services, as well as general data usage, will be assessed a 25-percent “content surcharge.” Data usage has a base charge of 30 cents per megabyte.
A 25-percent content surcharge would, for example, bring the price of a 99-cent music download to around $1.24. McAnallen said that the charge helps cover delivery costs for the data services as well as taxation, which varies by state.
Users will be able to recharge their prepaid accounts directly from their handsets, via Amp’d Mobile’s Web site or by calling a toll-free phone number. The service promises no credit checks, and users will be able to track their balances in real time. Users can recharge their accounts in amounts of $20, $30 and $50, and either can have a set amount automatically charged to a credit or debit card on a certain date or can replenish their account once it is running low-as shown on a gas tank-like meter on the screen, according to McAnallen. He said that Amp’d Mobile plans to have traditional prepaid cards available to users within the next couple of months.
The prepaid service joins Amp’d Mobile’s postpaid offering, launched late last year. The MVNO’s postpaid plans range from $30 to $150 per month with an 18-month contract, and McAnallen said that Amp’d plans to introduce hybrid plans later this summer that will involve a mandatory recurring charge, but no contract or credit check.
Amp’d Mobile is selling two of its three handset for $50 for its postpaid subscribers and $100 for its prepaid customers, after instant rebate. McAnallen said that more handsets are slated for launch in the third or fourth quarter, and plans include a Research In Motion Ltd. “BlackBerry-like” device and Motorola Inc.’s Razr. The MVNO’s current handsets are provided by Kyocera Wireless Corp. and Motorola.
Amp’d Mobile also is working on ramping up its distribution channels, McAnallen said, after launching with its Web site as the only place that people could buy its phones and service. Amp’d is “right in the middle of doing some contracts with big-box retailers” which would “come online in the next couple of months,” McAnallen said, as well as working with national channels such as American Wireless.
Amp’d Mobile has added to its content services by recently making streaming audio and video available to its users. Amp’d Radio offers a choice of 10 streaming radio channels, ranging from pop and hip-hop to MTV College Radio. Users cannot pre-set favorite channels, McAnallen said. Amp’d TV expands the MVNO’s video offerings with five channels of streaming video, including Fox Sports, Fox News and the “Best of Amp’d,” which includes some original programming. The TV package also includes “For Him!” and “For Her!” channels-the guys’ channel includes sports and video gaming programming, and the girls’ channel features content from fashion and reality television. Both the TV and radio packages cost $10 per month and include unlimited data transfer and Web browsing. If a user signs up for Amp’d Mobile’s $20 per month Overdose video package add-on, Amp’d Radio and Amp’d TV are included.
Amp’d Mobile also recently added BreakTV to its channel line-up, which broadcasts user-generated content; as well as making available Square Enix Inc.’s mobile video game Dirge of Cerberus: Lost Episode, which continues the story line of Final Fantasy VII.
Amp’d Mobile has not released any customer figures, but Verizon Wireless indicated that during the first quarter, it added 59,000 customers through resellers-which would include Amp’d Mobile. Resellers made up about 5 percent of Verizon Wireless’ customer base of 53 million at the end of the first quarter.
