Helio lowers price on unlimited rate plans
By Will Park on Monday, February 4th, 2008 at 12:44 PM PST In Announcements, Helio, Services
Is this a sign of things to come? Following on luxury MVNO Voce’s abrupt (and unethical) bankruptcy, Helio has just lowered the price of their unlimited rate plans. The Helio unlimited plan offers unlimited voice minutes, data, and SMS text messages for a new, low price of $99.
The price has been slashed from the previous $145 price point, and the new price seems to be a limited affair. The new $99 Helio unlimited plan doesn’t allow device-tethering, but hey, it’s still a good deal for heavy-talkers/data-consumers.
Now, what does this price-cut mean for Helio? One way to look at it is that Helio is just trying to expand its customer-base by playing around with rate-plan prices. On the other hand, Helio may be hurting for more customers. When carriers find themselves short on subscribers (and cash), they generally slash prices – which is exactly what Voce kept doing before their network went dark a couple days ago. After all, Helio has to make sure it puts that fresh $70 cash infusion to good use.
Helio = Apples. Voce = Oranges. Spurious comparison you’ve gt there, since they’ve completely different business models. (Helio’s $99 plan went live last week before Voce shuttered anyway, so the article is inaccurate.)
Helio’s actually been offering this on and off since summer of 2007. It’s is a good offering even if the customer service is way under par. I’ve been a dealer for a about a 1 1/2 years and they are pretty good about keeping aggressive promotions going.
Helio has been offering the unlimited plan for $99 for some time now and I do not think this has anything to do with Voce. It’s a completely different offering and does not even target the same customer base. Helio is mostly taking business away from Verizon and Sprint’s high end voice customers that are spending $200+ per month that are now spending half that amount by moving to Helio due to the unlimited plan.
John Kasset
http://www.heliopromo.com