WalMart Introduces Cell Phone Plan Under Own Brand

NEW YORK — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Monday that it is introducing the first cell phone plan that uses the chain's own branding, further demonstrating its clout in getting special deals from wireless carriers.

The Wal-Mart Family Mobile service will run on T-Mobile USA's network. Unlimited calling and texting will cost $45 per month for the first line and $25 for each additional line for the family. The service will be offered starting next week in most of its stores across the nation.

Since last year, Wal-Mart has been the exclusive seller of the Straight Talk service, which runs on the Verizon Wireless network. Wal-Mart is also trying out another service from Sprint Nextel Corp. called Common Cents.

Those are both "prepaid" plans, under which customers pay in advance and don't need to sign contracts.

Wal-Mart Family Mobile will be "postpaid" like conventional contract-based plans, so the family bill is paid at the end of the month. But in other ways it works much like prepaid service, and it won't come with a contract requirement or early termination fees. Buyers also won't need to go through credit checks.

Greg Hall, vice president of merchandising at Wal-Mart U.S., said there's a perception among customers that prepaid service doesn't offer access to the best phones or the best network quality. He said the postpaid nature of the plan is a way to avoid that.

Starting Monday, the chain plans to sell five phones, including a full-blown smart phone, the Motorola Cliq XT, which will cost $249. T-Mobile sells it for $329 without a contract, or gives it away to buyers who sign two-year contracts (with monthly fees that are higher than the no-contract option).

The cheapest phone for the service will be a simple Nokia phone for $35.

Straight Talk also costs $45 per month for unlimited calls and texting, but doesn't offer a discount for additional lines. And while Straight Talk offers unlimited free data, there are no smart phones available for it; the new Family Mobile plan includes only a small amount of free data. Common Cents is a basic pay-by-the-minute service.

"What we saw was an opening in the marketplace for really bringing family savings and a family plan and T-Mobile was a great partner there," Hall said.

The plan undercuts T-Mobile USA's own prices, but Jim Alling, its chief operating officer, said that Wal-Mart putting its own stamp on the brand name was a "tremendous endorsement."

While there's no contract, Ailing said the phones will be "locked" to Wal-Mart Family Mobile, so they won't be usable on another network, or even under a T-Mobile-branded plan.

There will also be a prepaid component to the service: extra charges for data use and international calls will come from a prepaid account, pooled for the whole family. For instance, one gigabyte of data usage will cost $40. By comparison, AT&T's contract customers pay $25 per month for 2 gigabytes of usage, but the data allowance doesn't carry over from month to month the way Wal-Mart's will.

T-Mobile USA is a subsidiary of German phone company Deutsche Telekom AG.

Shares of Wal-Mart, which is based in Bentonville, Ark., increased 24 cents to $52.21 Monday.

Comments

[Tiss C]

09:04 PM on 09/21/2010

Great way to be able to talk cheaper during these lean times...I'll wait until all of the bugs are out and give it a try...I'm all about change when it's beneficial...No contract, so what've you got to lose? If not, you can hold on to Verizon, AT&T & Sprint that's been around since Ma Bell days! LOL I'd like to save and talk at the same time...Absolutely no rocket science here folks!

[Narcissa Gomez]

08:05 PM on 09/20/2010

I purchased my Straight Talk phone at Walmart several months ago before the company I worked for decided to provide them to employees because of how inexpensive the unlimited plan is - despite the phone selection being on the limited side. While this new Walmart plan sounds pretty intriguing and my boss will prob consider it because of the per line cost, I think I'll stay with Straight Talk as far as prepaid. I'm a part of very dependable network thanks to Verizon and the unlimited data and texting is grat for the price. Fancy phone withdrawl aside, Straight Talk has the price if you need basic and dependable service.

[kellysans]

02:00 AM on 09/16/2010

It could be great if the phone was a high-end one. Walmart Phone Updates: http://bit.ly/a97TtG

[Mencken Today]

01:37 PM on 09/15/2010

It will be a cold-day in h**l before I ever consider anything from Wal*Mart...

[MrVee]

11:25 AM on 09/14/2010

I'll wait about 5 months and read the comments on a Wal-mart phone. This will be pure comedy.

[MNValley]

02:35 PM on 09/14/2010

Texting will have a 1 syllable limit on the words

[MrVee]

08:27 AM on 09/15/2010

And all text messages, no matter what you say, will randomly be appended with the words "reckon", "if'n" or "a fixin ta". lol.

As in,
"I'll see you in class first thing in the morning, ah reckon."
"I'll meet you at the front of Wal-mart if'n the creek don't rise"
or "I'm fixin ta leave in 20 minutes." lol

[Joseph Bethea]

01:14 AM on 09/15/2010

No mare comedy that a cell carrier telling you you can't buy a certain phone unless you pay for data services

[Mekales]

09:32 PM on 09/13/2010

I would guess the pre-installed ringtone would be "Dueling Banjos"?

[JFetch]

09:05 PM on 09/13/2010

Eh, I don't think I'd want to tell people I have a Wal-Mart phone. I get laughed at enough for using T-Mobile.

[elenanatx]

10:15 AM on 09/14/2010

who cares what people think, I'd be laughing at them while I'm saving money.

[MrVee]

08:35 AM on 09/15/2010

That saving money thing is a myth elenantx.
Have you checked the price of things at Wal-mart lately? Its not nearly as cheap as you think it is. It used to be but no longer.
Local Vegas TV did a report on how much things cost at Wal-mart I think we are now conditioned to expect the prices we pay for stuff at Wal-mart is cheaper than local supermarkets but in many cases, its not. Don't take my word for it, check for yourself.

[Joseph Bethea]

01:17 AM on 09/15/2010

let them laugh because i'd be laughing all the way to the bank

[elenanatx]

04:25 PM on 09/13/2010

A serious game changer for the wireless phone companies...LOL If all you need is a phone for talking and texting this is will be awesome!

[Bronhi]

03:56 PM on 09/13/2010

This should give T-Mobile a nice boost...

[jukesgrrl]

01:21 AM on 09/14/2010

Now, if only their service WORKED.

[JasonMcl]

02:48 PM on 09/13/2010

This is interesting. It is likely that the new service won't accept third party GSM phones but there is always the chance that it may.

You should note that T-mobile and At&t share their GSM networks on their prepaid service, so if you have a solid At&t connection where you live you will be able to use this unless it is regulated strictly to t-mobs network.

Also I would highly recommend that if you do get a smartphone you turn off the data transmission right away. Stock Android does not automatically let you do this but there are many third party programs that will. This is accomplished by a setting called "APN Name Change". It basically modifies your phone's network name to where it cannot properly send or receive data. The carrier itself should also allow you to turn off data, but a lot of them will not.

Finally if you cannot simply use third party phones on this plan and you would still like a cheap way to activate a smartphone, get a T-mobile prepaid kit for 6 dollars and activate it on any GSM phone (At&t/TMOB/EURO but not CMDA Verizon/Sprint). I talked to several different reps, all of them said it is fine to use any GSM phone on the network, even their own exclusive Galaxy S Vibrant.

I will check the plan out for myself later this week and see if they allow third party phones.