The weakened economy is causing many Americans to take a hard look at their budgets, and a recently released survey by the New Millennium Research Council suggests that their monthly cellphone bill is one of the primary expenses people are trying to reduce. Over 60 million consumers are likely to eliminate some of their cell phones services and features if the economy continues to worsen, according to the survey of about 2,000 respondents.In the last six months, about 15 percent of those polled have decided to eliminate extras such as internet connectivity and text messaging. An additional 40 percent of respondents who currently have these features replied that it is somewhat or very likely that they would get rid of these extras if the economy continued to decline.
Allen Hepner, a scholar with New Millennium Research Council, said in a statement that “The era of cell phone penny pinching is officially here. Thanks to the recession, the U.S. cell phone marketplace is undergoing fundamental changes that will just get bigger as the economic downturn deepens. What we see in these survey findings is clear evidence that most consumers will keep a cell phone during this recession, but only after shifting to less expensive cell phone plans, such as prepaid, and also by scaling back on cell phone extras...”
Prepaid plans have become more popular with consumers who are trying to cut costs because they require very little commitment which is often attractive when finances are uncertain. Over sixty percent of respondents with prepaid phones believe they are saving money compared to what they were paying for a contract-based or land line plan. The Telecommunications Research & Action Center, a non-profit education and advocacy organization, has also recently emphasized that many consumers could reduce their monthly bills by switching to prepaid phone service.
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--Bridget O'Sullivan
4 comments:
Why did it have to take a recession for people to realize that their cell phone contracts/extras are wasting their money? I mean, is it acceptable to waste money when there is no recession in the country? Guess not.
Anyway, I would never even consider signing up for a restrictive and overpriced contract. My NET10 prepaid phone gives me great coverage at an excellent rate of 10c a minute at any time or anywhere. And I don't have to fight about bills, or hidden charges added to my bill, like I see so many people do nowadays.
All those people going to prepaid, I think none of them will miss their contracts at all.
I'm with ya!
I have a Net 10 phone, too. Once I dumped my contract I could not believe how much I was saving with these guys. If more people would wake up and get rid of their contract phones, they;d save a tion, too!
I switched from Cingular to TracFone (prepaid cell phone service provider) and I am so happy with it! I can text, make long distance calls, and use only the minutes that I need. Best part is -- I am not being charged for overages, or even for fine line charges on my bill! Switching was the best thing I've done to save money.
TracFone has good phones now, relatively speaking. A qwerty model and a touch screen.
They still don't have contracts though and are prepaid.
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