Republic Wireless, a division of Bradband.com, announced a strategy meant to appeal to the subscribers that are more careful with their budget: unlimited data plan for a monthly fee of $20.
The company was expected to release today a hybrid cellular voice and VoIP service. The most attractive offer relies on unlimited data talk, text and data for a modest fee, without binding the subscribers by a contract and without the termination fee.
Moreover, Republic plans to use Wi-Fi by default to make VoIP calls with the safety net of cellular network, when Wi-Fi becomes unavailable. Recent trends show that carriers tend to rely more and more on Wi-Fi in order to reduce spectrum strain on their networks and to offload networks’ activity.
Cisco’s Hotspot 2.0 is a project meant to make more accessible the connection of wireless devices to hotspots. Companies like Republic Wireless might take advantage of this trend and align a strategy to offer to customers a cost effective, wireless connection with national coverage.
Analysts suggest that Republic Wireless is looking to benefit from an insufficiently served market niche. Customers who are price sensitive, want to purchase a smartphone but don’t want to be tied by a contract and prefer not to pay a higher fee, based on the smartphone usage.
The top US carriers are considering reducing the options for the unlimited data plans. Sprint already announced scaling back data plans. On the other hand, handset manufacturers also become more reluctant to put on the market low-costs feature phones that don’t require data plans. And the options for consumers with tight budgets become more limited.