Boost Mobile unlimited plan: Too good to be true?
Ahh the battle of the unlimited plans. Last month we learned of a new offering from Boost Mobile that seemed as though it would come in as the obvious winner, for those in areas well-covered by Sprint’s iDEN network at least. $50 each month, unlimited everything – or so we thought. As has become an unfortunate commonplace among service providers in various industries, unlimited doesn’t always mean unlimited and Zatz Not Funny! has inadvertently uncovered some troubling verbiage in the terms and conditions tied to Boost’s monthly unlimited plan. While searching for a new wireless broadband service provider, Zatz learned that Boost prohibits “unreasonable” usage and uses familiarly vague language to give the company an out in the event a subscriber is costing it too much money with heavy usage.
So, Boost unlimited subscribers, you should probably be aware that according to Boost’s terms you cannot use your handset to participate on conference calls, exchange an “unusually high” number of messages or place an “abnormally high number of calls”. You also cannot have atypical web usage and your calls cannot be repeatedly of an “unusually long” duration. How many calls are too many? How much web is too much? How many messages constitute an “unusually high” amount? Apparently, that’s for Boost to decide if it chooses to cut you off. Companies have been sued and fined time and time again for these shenanigans and we wouldn’t be surprised if Boost is well on its way to learning that the hard way. Hey Attorney General Cuomo… Where you at?
No conference calls = lame!
but what if conference != 3-way calling
No call waiting either… crazy
It never ends this debacle .
There’s another phone company named “metro pcs” that makes the same claim but for 40 bucks a month .
I live in NYC so idk if the service is available beyond that .
When somebody actually gets kicked out because this, it’ll be a story then
Sprint, the owner of Boost Mobile, is in a death spiral with its future hanging on the hope of the Pre and this “unlimited” plan. The Boost Mobile plan as is a misleading attempt to steal the market. Pre, as good as it seems, will probably be swamped by numerous other comparable or superior handsets before it actually launches.
Sounds reasonable to me……I never heard of MetroPCS cutting anyone off, if they have similar language………and most youngsters who have pre-pay yak on the phone endlessly anyway.
You people just find things to talk about. Boost has the best offering out. If you don’t like it don’t worry about it. Meanwhile the little statement you’ll make aren’t going to slow up sales. Boost is doing very well and take it from someone internally. HA HA HA
1. Boost mobile DOES have call waiting..
2. Do some research there are tons of people using it now and some say they use well over 2,000 easy..
It stems from people saying it’s too good to be true, it’s a pre pay option. All the pre pay and some post pay have some vague literature as an out to protect themselves
Wow it does SUCK that BGR is SO SO bias WOW
Its clear that BGR will bash sprint in any way it can..
The same “vague language” is the very means by which every carrier has put an end to idiots’ use whereby they virtually use their cell phone as their ISP.
Solid catch, Zach.
I believe this is in there to prevent people from using their phones 24/7.. not to cut off chatty 15 year old girls. Example, say some guy owns a pawn shop and doesn’t want to pay for security, he can’t buy 2 Boost phones, leave one in his store, plugged in, and on speaker phone all night.. just to listen in on what’s happening at home. Also, call waiting was rolled out already. Anything else people can complain about? Phones? iDEN coverage?
@afd Good call man. It’s awesome that your carrier makes sure they can fuck you any time you want by putting shitty terms like these in the TOC. Just cut you off in the middle of a call one day because you talk more than they want you to on their “unlimited” plan. Holy bias!
^It’s a reaction to those who have histories of abusing the system. Cause & Effect, in action.
isnt this sorta kinda a little bit similar to the other guys having 5mb caps on unlimited plans, or the cable companies slowing down torrent users bandwidth, or wait a min almost every store having the we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone policy… lmao @ a weak story and people eating it up..
Most of these companies have auto disconnects that kills the call after 3-4-5 hours anyway. What’s the deal!?
Slow news day, huh Zach? Good thing it was in Bold, otherwise you may not have caught that one.
It figers! I have this plan and it does everything like they said. It cuts off all the time and that theres no call waiting and it takes forever for a phone call to come through… well so much for having boost!
Maybe there is no dictionary @ Boost, but here is some help:
un·lim·it·ed (n-lm-td)
adj.
1. Having no restrictions or controls: an unlimited travel ticket.
2. Having or seeming to have no boundaries; infinite: an unlimited horizon.
3. Without qualification or exception; absolute: unlimited self-confidence.
How does this work?
Can you bring any CDMA phone to boost and have them activate it?
So could you buy a BB Storm and then get unlimited service from Boost for $50?
This is why MetroPCS is the best pre-paid option, there is no fine print or BS legal. Unlimited on MetroPCS is just that UNLIMITED.
Call waiting will available for Customers on Boost’s Unlimited Plan effective tomorrow (Feb 18). Existing Customers have been migrated to have the feature included as well. And as for all the “bent out of shape-ness” over the disclaimer… Go ahead and read the fine print on the Sprint Unlimited Plan or the AT&T Unlimited Plan. That tiny text tells you the same thing as the Boost disclaimer does; the only difference is that you’ll have to fork over a termination fee when those Carriers decide they don’t want your business anymore. Besides, the “excessive usage” clause pertains to such a small amount of Customers that I don’t see a reason for regular consumers to get hung up on that kind of lingo.
@IMightBeStupid:
Boost Mobile uses a novel technology called iDEN, that uses SIM cards but is otherwise incompatible with GSM and their phones. You could theoretically use an unlocked iDEN phone, but I don’t know that they even exist, much less even a market for them.
iDEN is a newer technology than GSM. GSM came about in the 1980s in Europe. I like iDEN very much but growth of the iDEN market is fairly stagnant. I would not anticipate a whole lot of new iDEN towers going up. Sprint may have pawned off some services to Boost on the hopes of turning a profit by volume on its iDEN network. Then again, Vigin Mobile USA is undercutting Sprint’s CDMA network. Sprint may be a dying hip.