Zer01 Mobile launches nationwide
If you’ve always wanted unlimited voice and data on the smartphone of your choice but VOCE disappeared before you could jump on board, Zer01 Mobile might just be the way to go. After all, $79.99 per month (up from $69.99 when the service was first announced) gets you unlimited voice (MoIP), data and messaging on AT&T’s data networks and an extra $10 gets you unlimited international calling to around 40 countries. The only catch is that Zer01 has to install its proprietary software on your phone (or you can purchase a device from the company itself with software preloaded) because it uses data networks for all connectivity. This means that voice, not just data, is also carried through the data networks — yay MoIP. Zer01 assures us that its call quality doesn’t suffer when your data connection is weak thanks to the proprietary technology it uses. Right now Windows Mobile phones are being supported but BlackBerry, Android and other OSes are going to get support soon. Lastly, there are no contracts involved as the service is entirely prepaid. Interest piqued?
One of the keys here is that the service is prepaid, no contracts. That is huge, and it means that the service really does cost $79.95, instead of $1,918.80, which is what the plan would cost from other carriers on a two-year contract. Bravo to the investors for trying this out.
I was approached by a person at my cellphone repair store attempting to get me involved in a MLM…(pyramid scheme) involving this service. His promotional material was exactly what is stated on the Buzzirk Wireless webpage. He was upset when I questioned the 180mbs data speed and he insured me it was just technology no one knows about. I began asking simple questions like why the promotional material was just a BW copy of plain text and why the website of a company that had invested billions of dollars was so horrible and the list gos on and on. Sounds like a scam to me. I would love to hear from someone who knows how this would work instead of someone that already bought into the pyramid scheme themselves just copying text.
Billions of dollars spent? Riiiiiiight.
SCAM ALERT!
I’m still puzzled over the entire operation. Zer01 is the company that is developing and providing the service to MVNO’s. Their site is very crappy for a company who has invested (did I read?) billions into this company. Zer01’s website has very little information, IMO. For a service this revolutionary they need to provide LOTS of details so that they can win over their projected 10% market share. Furthermore, they Zero01 has links to BuzzirkMobile on their site as a partner/MVNO. However, Buzzirk claims they have an exclusive agreement with Zer01 for the technology in one place and then they claim they have an exlusive agreement as a MVNE in another place. On top of that, CNET reports that the spokesperson for Zer01 said TODAY that they will be announcing additional distributor agreements in the coming weeks???? Wait, I thought Buzzirk had a exclusive agreement?
Here is the link to the CNET article:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10277712-1.html
Here is a link to GlobalVerge’s(aka Buzzirk Mobile’s) support area where they state they have an exclusive sales contact and marketing rights:
http://www.globalvergesupport.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=55&nav=0,8
Continuing, Buzzirk is being promoted via GlovalVerge which is a “direct marketing” company. From my investigations GlobalVerge is just one big MLM scheme. At this point, Buzzirk and Zer01 are going to have to do some serious PR work to win my trust. I mean, come on, buying cellular service from a MLM/pyramid scheme?
Next, the pricing confusion…. Zer01 says its going to 69.95 per month in one spot and then they say its going to be 79.95 in another. For a company that has spent “billions” pricing/marketing should have fit in that budget somewhere. And…..don’t let 79.95 seem like that’s all this service cost. Zer01 says a $30 activation fee will apply. Buzzirk says the activation fee is “TBD.”
Now, onto release dates. It says July 1st was the launch date nationwide. How come there is absolutely no where you can purchase the service? Even Buzzirk does not have a signup system yet. However, Buzzirk “has a strong and growing customer base along with a positive cash flow operation.” Already? They already have a strong and growing customer base but you can’t get the service yet… and they don’t know what the activation fee will be.
Okay, one more thing and then I promise to shut up. All this confusion over the coverage areas and who the data plans are provided by…? All I’ve seen anyone mention is AT&T. According to Buzzirk (who is likely an unreliable source) their “setvice works anywhere where ATT and Tmobile work in US and Rogers in CA Internet as well.” (quoted directly from http://www.globalvergesupport.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=26&nav=0,8 ) So…. T-Mobile, AT&T, and Rodgers????? More confusion.
I would suggest everyone do a little investigation before “jumping on the bandwagon.” While I hope the service does extraordinarily well, there are just too many questionable points. If I made mistakes or misquoted anything, please correct me.
i can absolutely tell you zer01 is the real deal! ive had PERVASIP S LANDLINE VOIP FOR A YEAR AND ITS NEVER EVER CRASHED! if their mobile is as good, its game over! pvsp s shares will soar!!
PERVASIP HAS THE TECHNOLOGY VOIP FOR ZER01! THEIR SHARES WILL SOAR IF THEIR MOBILE TECH IS AS GOOD AS THEIR LANDLINE VOIP!1
The real deal supposedly launched over a week ago…. I sure haven’t seen any one raving about it. Even more, I haven’t even seen a place that can actually tell you what is going on……
They will use GSM cell phone to cell tower, than go internet via 2100MHZ HSPD to the inbound telephone line. The speed is gain by tri-band 3.5G 1700/1900/2100 MHz /HSDPA up to 7.2 Mbps download / HSUPA 2 Mbps upload / UMTS 384Kb/s data rate. The hsdpa (high speed Data Packets and hsupa when combine are know as HSPA. High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) is an enhanced 3G (third generation) mobile telephony communications protocol in the High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) family, also coined 3.5G or 3G+, which allows networks based on Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) to have higher data transfer speeds and capacity. Current HSDPA deployments support down-link speeds of 1.8, 3.6, 7.2 and 14.0 Mbit/s. Further speed increases are available with HSPA+, which provides speeds of up to 42 Mbit/s downlink.[1] The backbone of thier system will use 2100 MHz, its so strong that the submarines use it and the navy uses it on its ships because it penetrates the steal hulls and penetrates from underwater.
This whole thing stink to almighty.. if you want to see the phone.. you cannot.. if you want to see the corp office in Vegas.. its a mostly empty bldg in Vegas.. If you want be a distributor.. you have to sign up.. the MULTI BILLION dollar company cannot to debit/credit card transactions anymore.. so they want the new ppl to sign up ACH.. direct account transfers.
It looks to me like zer01 is going to be ALL AT&T.. since the “borrowed” AT&Ts coverage map for their website..
In response to the post about Zer01 buying the rights to 2100 MHz frequency – I have read articles on the web stating that they have not bought or are not leasing any 2100 MGz frequency. It also states that T-Mobile and AT&T say they do not have a business relationship with Zer01. So how are they going to provide nation wide coverage? Check out the article at http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/072009-zer01s-mobile-offer-may-be.html?page=1
I really think that this company is a scam and the people running it are idiots. Everything they say to the media is a lie (when they even respond to any questions). Do they think that no one is going to do the research to see if they actually own a patent or bandwidth, etc?
Well well… where are we now? Aug 27th.. Anybody still backing this joke of a company still?