Prepaid Cellphone War Could Benefit African-Americans

AT&T has decided its not going to give up the prepaid cellphone market to T-Mobile without a fight. T-Mobile has been sucking AT&T customers away with some pretty aggressive tactics and AT&T is feeling it. In a move to make it’s no contract phone plans more competitive with T-Mobile AT&T is upping the amount of data customer’s receive with each plan. Starting  April 25th AT&T will change two of its no contract plans. The GoPhone plan changes  include the  $60 per month plan which will now have an additional 500MB of data. That brings it’s monthly data package up to 2.5GB per month and will also allow GoPhone customers to use their data to create Wi-Fi hotspots. The other change doubles the data on their $40 a month  plan from 250MB to 500MB per month. AT&T is also introducing a plan solely for Walmart that includes 1GB of data and unlimited talk for $45 a month.

Breaking It Down

If you can’t see what’s happening here let me show you. T-Mobile has been making a big push for pre-pay customers. And they have been gaining market share in that area. Its a lucrative market that consists of a lot of African-American customers. And there’s plenty of room for growth and that means money. AT&T wants a piece of the pie and have stepped up their game to get it.  But it goes further than that. These extra chunks of data offered by AT&T could benefit black people who use smartphones and mobile devices in greater proportion than the rest of the country.  Yeah, a lot of people are sitting in Starbucks using the free WiFi. But many black people would appreciate being able to use that WiFi in the safety of their own home and cut out that expensive home internet connection. Especially in this security conscious cyber age where it can be dangerous to use someone’s open WiFi. People with smartphones can do a lot more with that extra data and AT&T knows it. But wait! There’s more! Sprint offers an everything plan with unlimited data, talk and messaging. Only $79.00 a month. But you have to sign the contract. How long before AT&T and T-Mobile decide they can do it too without without a contract? Sprint better look out.

For many people, Black people included, prepaid cellphones are an economic blessing. This is an important and profitable segment of the market.  People who are economically disadvantaged are also usually in possession of a pre-paid cell phone. This news is sure to get a lot of smiles from this market segment. You’re getting a lot more for the same amount of money and that is always good news.