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."
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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.
Top Rated Comments
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
$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.
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.
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.
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.