Prepaid Cell Phones: a Great New Alternative to Contract Mobile Phones

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The total number of prepaid mobile phone subscribers is expected to reach 38.1 million in 2007. Developed as an enhancement to billed cellular services, prepaid cellular telephones have gone beyond their original function of controlling mobile phone costs. The combination of seamless roaming performance, international text messaging capabilities and free unlimited incoming calls allows prepaid mobile to be used with as much flexibility as monthly cellular plans.

A few years ago, at the beginning of the new millennium, it was becoming clear that the regular cellular services could not address the mobile telecommunications needs of millions of would-be customers. As telecommunications moved toward the rapid expansion of prepaid cellular and PCS services and as both feature availability and demand grew, prepaid service providers are considering creating higher quality products for a single IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) environment. Prepaid phone users are expecting advanced multimedia services such as Ringback tones, sports scores, even video clips, not to mention video games. Providers with established distribution channels are busy putting together the long list of blended, completely mobile services which customers actually want to see on their mobile communication devices. Or shall we say mobile entertainment devices?

In conjunction with hosted service providers or Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO), prepaid mobile service providers will define the new advanced applications platform for next-generation prepaid technologies. Advanced prepaid features will also incorporate the elements necessary to ensure high device reliability.

Today's prepaid cellular services have several key features. One is web-based activation and account management. It can save customers a lot of hold time, giving end-users considerable flexibility. Another is that prepaid account balances can be recharged on the fly using a number of options. This provides the ability for and full control over the telecommunications budget management. In fact, this is one of the performance-enhancing features of most of the prepaid cellular services. Airtime refill cards come in three or four different denominations: $10, $15, $25, $35 and $50. The different recharge card amounts allow the customer a greater degree of control over monthly expenses. The range of wireless recharge card brands makes for an incredible variety for the user to enjoy and be able to pick from. Most exciting of all, it's easy as entering a simple string of numbers including your PIN.

The advanced wireless recharge options are only a beginning. As long as prepaid wireless operators invest the necessary time and energy in deploying new services, they can count on unparalleled customer loyalty. Further, the prepaid IMS services are expected to be readily expandable through overlaying existing TDM networks, without costly equipment changes.

Long Distance Post - your number choice in prepaid wireless.

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