The economic downturn has created an upsurge in mobile phone users opting for pre-paid calling plans: as consumers look to control their spending and rein in costs, pre-paid plans offer ways for users to keep their phone costs under control and not be surprised with gargantuan bills at the end of a month. However, almost all pre-paid plans make user buy a pre-defined number of minutes—that’s great for users with established calling habits who know what they’re going to need, but leaves other pre-paid users kind of in the dark, wondering how many minutes they have left, when they might expire, or being forced to buy another batch just to make a single call.
Mobile operator AT&T hopes to appeal to pre-paid users frustrated with buying minutes with a new unlimited calling plan: for $3, users get unlimited voice service for 24 hours: no counting minutes, no worrying about overages. The plan is designed to appeal to users who perhaps use their phones only a few days a week (or even a few days a month). A customer who used the service every day would pay over $90 a month, but a user who relies on their mobile phone only one day a week can get by for about $150 a year—considerably less expensive than even the cheapest monthly voice plan.
The $3 per day plan is available now as part of AT&T’s Go Phone prepaid plans. Features include basic voice mail, three-way calling, call forwarding, Caller ID, and call waiting.
