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AT&T Launches New Aio Wireless Prepaid Brand, iPhone Plans Start at $55/Month

Thursday May 9, 2013 7:40 am PDT by Eric Slivka
Aio Wireless, a new prepaid cellular brand from AT&T, today announced that it has launched operations in Houston, Orlando, and Tampa, with additional cities coming over the next year. The brand offers customers access to increasingly popular prepaid cellular services alongside popular devices including the iPhone.
"We talked with no-annual-contract customers and created our service around what they want. They want simple, easy plan choices with unlimited offers; first-class service at affordable prices; great devices; nationwide voice and data coverage; and no annual contracts. Today's wireless customers don't want to compromise," said Jennifer Van Buskirk , president of Aio Wireless. "We are set up to win over value-conscious customers who are increasingly moving towards smartphones and mobile broadband."
iphone_5_aio
Aio offers two no-contract plans for smartphone customers, with the carrier's "Aio Smart" plan priced at $55/month offering unlimited talk, text, and data, with a 2 GB soft cap on high-speed data. An "Aio Pro" tier priced at $70/month increases the data soft cap to 7 GB. Aio offers the iPhone 5, 4S, and 4, with devices carrying full unsubsidized prices that see the iPhone 5 start at $650.

As noted by GigaOM, Aio mentions in its press release that the carrier offers "4G download speeds of up to 4Mbs per second", indicating that LTE is not currently supported with high-speed data limited to HSPA+ networks.

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aristobrat
70 months ago

Pure pain. $20 per month for unlimited data in Taiwan. Why so xpensive in US?

Maybe because the US needs a gazillion more cell towers to provide coverage? :confused:

Size of Taiwan = 13,972 sq miles
Size of US = 3,794,000 sq miles
Rating: 24 Votes
Avatar
CheesePuff
70 months ago

$55/month for 2GB data??? For once I'm glad to live in the UK -- I pay about $20/month for unlimited data, 600 mins, 2000 texts, and got about $100 cashback for signing up for 12 months


$55 a month with unlimited text and minutes, with data for a smart phone is actually a great deal in the US... unfortunately.
Rating: 11 Votes
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mKizzo
70 months ago
Pure pain. $20 per month for unlimited data in Taiwan. Why so xpensive in US?
Rating: 6 Votes
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crisss1205
70 months ago

Pure pain. $20 per month for unlimited data in Taiwan. Why so xpensive in US?


The median household income in Taiwan is $12,000 USD while in the US it is closer to about $50,000 USD. So our income is roughly 4X more than Taiwan. Therefor, your $20 cell phone bill should cost about $80 in the US.
Rating: 6 Votes
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cameronjpu
70 months ago

Pure pain. $20 per month for unlimited data in Taiwan. Why so xpensive in US?


Take your phone in Taipei and travel 500 miles to the west. Can you still use it? And 500 miles north. Still $20 per month?

There's your answer.
Rating: 5 Votes
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szw-mapple fan
70 months ago

Pure pain. $20 per month for unlimited data in Taiwan. Why so xpensive in US?


How big is Taiwan? How big is the US? If you want to set up full coverage LTE across the country it's gonna cost a company.
Rating: 5 Votes
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mccldwll
70 months ago

I don't really see a discount here. The base iPhone plan from AT&T is $70 WITH subsidy (unlimited Talk, text, 2GB data) they are not even discounting the full subsidy (only getting $360 off instead of $450 off the iphone)

for plan parity it should be $22.50 off the base iPhone plan or $47.50 per month, not $55. They are actually charging a lot more AND getting full price for the phone.



Huh? Base plan is 450 minutes and no text.
Rating: 5 Votes
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HobeSoundDarryl
70 months ago

Pure pain. $20 per month for unlimited data in Taiwan. Why so xpensive in US?


Because when it comes to cell phone service plans, Americans are gullible enough to not just pay much more than many other countries for less service but also obligate themselves to 2 or 3 years of payments whether they then use that service for the next 2 or 3 years or not.

All these guys talking about size of the country might be a little right. But size of the country also translates to size of the market. Thus, more revenues from more customers to mitigate more infrastructure costs. You're chasing the wrong thing by trying to tie infrastructure costs into why we pay more. The bulk of why it costs more is because AT&T, Verizon, etc like their profits as fat as they are and are able to flex their muscles to keep entities such as smallish or upstart competitors and or Gov regulation mostly out of their hair.

Solution: if Americans as a group would refuse to sign on or re-up at current rates, rates would come down. Those rates don't have to be where they are because America is such a big country; they're there because we're stupid enough as a group to pay that much for service.

Look no further than how much it costs in infrastructure to support texting and how much we pay to be able to text as the most blatant example of this point.
Rating: 4 Votes
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Oneness
70 months ago

Take your phone in Taipei and travel 500 miles to the west. Can you still use it? And 500 miles north. Still $20 per month?

There's your answer.


Do that in Texas and you would still be.... in Texas.
Rating: 3 Votes
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Taz Mangus
70 months ago

$55/month for 2GB data??? For once I'm glad to live in the UK -- I pay about $20/month for unlimited data, 600 mins, 2000 texts, and got about $100 cashback for signing up for 12 months


When someone says something like you do I just realize how much you are paying for gas in the UK. :p
Rating: 3 Votes

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