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Wal-Mart To Launch Unlimited Wireless Family Plan

Posted by Soulskill on from the pick-up-some-trash-bags-and-some-internets-on-the-way-home dept.

adeelarshad82 writes "Wal-Mart has announced that it will sell a post-paid wireless service powered by T-Mobile, which will be targeted at families. Users who sign up for Wal-Mart Family Mobile service will not have to sign a contract. The first line will cost $45 per month, and each additional line will cost $25 per month. Each line will have unlimited talk and text, so overage charges will not be an issue. For data access, each phone will come pre-loaded with a 100MB card known as a WebPak, which is shared among all lines on an account. Data does not expire, and refill cards can be purchased in Wal-Mart stores or online. The WebPak can also be used to make international calls at 5 cents per minute to any landline number in about a dozen countries."

5 of 278 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Families? by iammani · · Score: 4, Informative

    I dont want made you associate Family with Censorship. Family refers to purchasing in packs of more than 1. There used be a pepsi family 4-pack. Publix used to have a family pack bread. And all wireless providers offer family plans (none of which currently censor anything)

  2. Re:Sounds to me like... by Shakrai · · Score: 3, Informative

    I wonder what the coverage is like

    They are using T-Mobile's network. It'll be fine in major cities and utter crap in the countryside. Around these parts T-Mobile is useless if you venture more than two or three miles off the interstate.....

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  3. May not be as cheap as you think by Andorin · · Score: 4, Informative

    Is there a catch to Walmart's offerings? You bet. The available data plans are blindingly expensive, locking out much of the lucrative and quickly growing smartphone market. A single gigabyte of prepaid data through Walmart costs $40, which is quite steep compared to AT&T's 2GB for $25 per month, or T-Mobile's $30 per month for unlimited data.

    So says Ars Technica, anyway. I don't know much about the market for mobile Internet, but $40 per gigabyte sounds unbelievable. I'm just passing on what I've read.

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    1. Re:May not be as cheap as you think by CycleMan · · Score: 3, Informative

      $40/GB is a lot cheaper than the $1200/MB Verizon charges for text messages.

  4. Re:Any way to bypass Bentonville? by theaveng · · Score: 3, Informative

    Cricket Broadband is only $40 a month, although not unlimited (high-speed changes to low-speed after 5 gigabytes).

    VirginMobile offers cheap phone service for only $5 a month (25 minutes plus 20 cents each add'l minute) or $25 (300 minutes and unlimited texting).

    For once Walmart is not the cheapest option.

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