Metro PCS - No Contract Cellular
Who is Metro PCS
Metro PCS, once known as General Wireless, is an American wireless provider and is currently the fifth largest such provider in the the United States. At last count it had eight point one (8.1m) million subscribers. It is based in Richmond, Texas.
Metro uses both CMDA and LTE (Verizon's Long Term Evolution [LTE]) in it's network. It has fair reviews for reception and transfer speed, and like all the other "no contract" players mixed reviews in customer satisfaction.
As with all the other "no contract" providers reviewed here, there is a month to month fee that the consumer is obligated to pay once signing up. So there is indeed a contract; just not a two year long one.
Metro has both brick-and-mortar stores as well as online shopping. The site is easy to navigate and it's quite easy to select plans and phones. As with Boost, Metro offers an amazing variety of phones; twenty-six (26) altogether and these are distinct models of phone, not just phones in different colors.
To date Metro is the only "no contract" company offering Android powered phones and is the only company with the cheapest plans. All plans have unlimited calling, voice mail, unlimited text, and web access. These are the CDMA phones. LTE phone plans are about ten dollars a month more, but offer considerably more "unlimited" services.
LTE phones, including the Android model, have all of the above plus unlimited international text messaging, unlimited directory assistance, unlimited Metro navigator (GPS) and a plethora of other included features.
According to Metro you can cancel anytime,
but from reading both positive (about half) and negative (about half) reviews, there
are occasional problems with billing, charges, service, and customer
support. Most complaints have to do with the inability to download, connect to Windows 7.0 computers, and the lack of ring-tones. This is mild compared to the other "no contract" companies the author has reviewed to date.
No Contract, But a Commitment
As stated above, MetroPCS claims there's no contract, but since you have to call to end service
and failing to call to stop service will continue the billing, the no
contract claim is just plainly not true. I'm not sure how all these companies get away with these claims, but they are quite common. Buyer beware!
What Metro PCS does not require is a two year commitment. The phones are priced such that they appear to be the actual price, not a "loss leader" as with a two-year commitment. There is no plan in place to reduce your bill for prompt payment, but they are by far the cheapest of the "no contract" providers out there.
Regardless, if you do not cancel your service you will continue to be billed and be obligated to pay those bills.
The Phones
The author is not about to attempt to cover twenty-five (25) different phones. But they will be named here and each name is a link to a specifications site called PhoneArea. They are quite good.
The Metro PCS lineup is as follows:
Samsung Craft ($299.00 + tax)
Samsung Code ($249.00 + tax)
Blackberry Curve 8530 ($249.00 + tax)
LG Optimus M ($199.00 + tax) <--- Android 2.2
LG Banter Touch ($149.00 + tax)
Samsung Messenger II ($90.35 + tax)
Motorola Hint ($90.35 + tax)
Huawei Ascend ($129.00 + tax)
Samsung Messenger III ($119.00 + tax)
LG Lyric ($99.00 + tax)
Huawei M735 ($99.00 + tax)
Huawei M750 ($89.00 + tax)
Samsung Freeform ($79.00 + tax)
ZTE Agent ($69.00 + tax)
LG Select ($59.00 + tax)
Samsung Freeform II ($49.00 + tax)
Samsung Contour ($49.00 + tax)
LG Imprint ($49.00 + tax)
Kyocera Neo ($49.00 + tax)
Kyocera Laylo ($39.00 + tax)
Samsung Stunt ($29.00 + tax)
Kyocera Torino ($29.00 + tax)
Kyocera Melo ($18.85 + tax)
Huawei M228 ($29.00 + tax)
Kyocera Domino Purple ($19.00 + tax)
Kyocera Domino ($19.00 + tax)
The Plans
Metro PCS has seven (7) plans. All offer unlimited calling, text, and and voicemail. Three of the seven (7) plans are for LTE networks only which means the are for the smartphones. The other for are for CDMA networks. As with Boost Mobile plan costs rise $10.00 per month if the Blackberry Curve 8530 is selected. The Curve does not support the LTE network.
Plans start at $40.00 and peak at $60.00 for the Blackberry. LTE plans start at $40.00 and rise to $60.00 for the premium plan.
There is no "Pay as You Go" plan.
The Phones
Unlike Consumer Cellular and TracFone, the
phones offered range from bare minimum phones to true smartphones; one is even Android 2.2 powered. True, you can't get much more basic
than the cheapest phones, but the smartphones are proven powerhouses and the intermediate phones have good ratings too.
The Minutes
There is no minute to minute or maximum minute per month plan. All plans have unlimited voice, text, and voice mail. Refreshing.
The Text and Pictures
Same deal. All plans have unlimited text with pictures.
Because there are so many features with each plan please refer to the table below.
Metro PCS
| $40
| $45
| $50
| $60
| $40
| $50
| $60
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
LTE
| LTE
| LTE
| |||||
Unlimited Local
| x
| x
| x
| x
| x
| x
| x
|
Unlimited National Long Distance
| x
| x
| x
| x
| x
| x
| x
|
Voice Mail
| x
| x
| x
| x
| x
| x
| x
|
Unlimited Text
| x
| x
| x
| x
| x
| x
| x
|
Unlimited Text and Picture
| x
| x
| x
| x
| x
| x
| x
|
Unlimited Web Access
| x
| x
| x
| x
| x
| x
| x
|
Unlimited International Text
| x
| x
| x
| x
| x
| ||
Unlimited 411
| x
| x
| x
| x
| x
| ||
Unlimited Navigator
| x
| x
| x
| x
| |||
Unlimited Instant Messasging
| x
| x
| x
| x
| |||
Unlimited Friend Finder
| x
| x
| x
| x
| |||
Unlimited Email Access
| x
| x
| x
| x
| |||
Unlimited Calls to Mexico
| $5
| $5
| $5
| 5
| |||
Unlimited Interntional Calling
| $10
| $10
| $10
| $10
| |||
Video on Demand
| x
| ||||||
Unlimited Youtube
| x
| x
| x
| ||||
Additional Data
| N/A
| 1GB
| no limit
| ||||
Corporate Email
| x
| $5
| x
| x
|
Verdict
Before researching this provider, the author's knowledge of this vendor was limited to the odd commercials that seem to come on every hour on the hour. Odd because the characters representing Metro PCS are clearly of Indian ethnicity and, as a demographic, they are clearly not the only group who might want to use Metro PCS.
Is the call center in India? Maybe that's why.
Complaints
The author has heard complaints about lousy coverage with Metro, but that seems to be the case with all providers regardless of who they are.
In researching the article, the author found most complaints centered around the inability to connect the phones to the users desktop computer, the lack of ring-tones, or lousy customer service, In fact, bad customer service is the top complaint followed by billing errors and stolen customer data.
This last is quite disturbing. It implies that Metro PCS' customer database may have been hacked and that data used to make "identity theft" type charges.
Call quality, on the other hand, was not a primary complaint.
Still, of all the "no contract" providers they are the cheapest, easiest to understand, and have the most phones to offer. it is also a great relief to the author that Metro PCS does not seem to be targeting seniors.
Coda
Even though Metro PCS is cheaper to other providers they are still too high. This isn't really an indictment, everyone is charging too much for their phones and service. But of the "no contract" providers reviewed to-date the author finds this one of the least (if not the least) expensive and the plans and phone selections are easy, straight-forward, and no misleading.
Of the "no contract" providers reviewed this is one of the few the author would consider trying, but that's still not saying much.
Disclaimer
The author was not compensated in any way, monetarily, with discounts, or freebies by any of the companies mentioned.
Though the author does make a small profit for the word count of this article none of that comes directly from the manufacturers mentioned. The author also stands to make a small profit from advertising attached to this article.
The author has no control over either the advertising or the contents of those ads.
