AT&T Mobility's GoPhone to get smartphone

Further proof that the prepaid space is the mobile industry’s hottest segment came this morning with AT&T Mobility (T) announcing it will begin offering its first smartphone through its GoPhone offering.
LG Electronics Co. Ltd.’s Thrive has been tapped as the initial prepaid smartphone for the carrier with expected availability beginning April 17. The device includes a 3.2-inch touchscreen, runs Google Inc.’s Android 2.2 operating system and sports a 3.2 megapixel camera. The Thrive is set to retail for $180.
In support of the new device, AT&T Mobility also unveiled new mandatory prepaid data packages. The plans begin at 1 cent per five kilobytes of data transmission, moves up to $5 for 10 megabytes of data transmission, ratchets up to $15 for 100 MB and top out at $25 for 500 MB. The carrier previously offered data priced at 1 cent per kilobyte, 1 MB for $5 and 100 MB for $20. The data packages also include unlimited access to AT&T Mobility’s Wi-Fi hotspots.
Calling plans for the device will follow current GoPhone offerings with customers able to select either a 10 cent per minute plan or pay $2 per day for unlimited talk and texting.
AT&T Mobility has begun to see increased adoption of “smarter” devices through its prepaid service offering. During the fourth quarter of last year the carrier said it added around 400,000 tablet devices that the carrier booked through its prepaid service, which offset the loss of nearly 100,000 traditional prepaid customers.
Smartphones have increasingly become mandatory offerings for prepaid services with a number of operators, including MetroPCS Communications Inc., Leap Wireless International Inc., Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile USA all recently launching such devices. Carriers have noted that the devices, which despite typically larger subsidies from the carrier are still priced at a premium compared to traditional prepaid devices, usually result in higher average revenue per user due to required higher rate plans as well as lower churn as customers are typically happier with the device.