The postpaid mobile phone is a mobile phone for which service is provided by a prior arrangement with a mobile network operator. The user in this situation is billed after the fact according to their use of mobile services at the end of each month. Typically, the customer's contract specifies a limit or "allowance" of minutes, text messages etc., and the customer will be billed at a flat rate for any usage equal to or less than that allowance. Any usage above that limit incurs extra charges. Theoretically, a user in this situation has no limit on use of mobile services and, as a consequence, unlimited credit. This service is better for people with a secured income.
Postpaid service mobile phone typically requires two essential components in order to make the 'post-usage' model viable:
Credit history/Contractual commitment. This is the basis on which the service provider is able to trust the customer with paying their bill when it is due and to have legal recourse in case of non-payment
Service tenure. Most postpaid providers require customers to sign long term (1–3year) contracts committing to use of the service. Failure to complete the term would make the customer liable for early termination fees.
The bill itself is an important component of the services which acts as an ambassador of the service provider and at times as an evidence of the service itself. The bill needs to be readable, comprehensible as well as aesthetically attractive for the subscriber to be interested enough to see details other than the bill amount.
The United States and Canada are examples of countries dominated by postpaid providers, including AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon in the US and Bell, Rogers, and Telus in Canada, among others. In the US a smaller market has been captured by prepaid providers such as Boost Mobile, Metro by T-Mobile, Cricket Wireless, TracFone, and Ting, which use postpaid providers networks (e.g. Cricket runs on AT&T's network).
The alternative billing method is a prepaid mobile phone where a user pays in advance for credit which is then consumed by use of the mobile phone service.
A payphone is typically a coin-operated public telephone, often located in a telephone booth or in high-traffic outdoor areas, with prepayment by inserting money or by billing a credit or debit card, or a telephone card. Prepaid calling cards also facilitate establishing a call by first calling the provided toll-free telephone number, entering the card account number and PIN, then the desired telephone number. An equipment usage fee may be charged as additional units, minutes or tariff fee to the collect/third-party, debit, credit, telephone or prepaid calling card when used at payphones. By agreement with the landlord, either the phone company pays rent for the location and keeps the revenue, or the landlord pays rent for the phone and shares the revenue.
A SIM lock, simlock, network lock, carrier lock or (master) subsidy lock is a technical restriction built into GSM and CDMA mobile phones by mobile phone manufacturers for use by service providers to restrict the use of these phones to specific countries and/or networks. This is in contrast to a phone that does not impose any SIM restrictions.
Roaming is a wireless telecommunication term typically used with mobile devices, such as mobile phones. It refers to a mobile phone being used outside the range of its native network and connecting to another available cell network.
A fee is the price one pays as remuneration for rights or services. Fees usually allow for overhead, wages, costs, and markup. Traditionally, professionals in the United Kingdom receive a fee in contradistinction to a payment, salary, or wage, and often use guineas rather than pounds as units of account. Under the feudal system, a Knight's fee was what was given to a knight for his service, usually the usage of land. A contingent fee is an attorney's fee which is reduced or not charged at all if the court case is lost by the attorney.
Fido is a Canadian mobile network operator owned by Rogers Communications. Since its acquisition by Rogers in 2004, it has operated as a Mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) using the Rogers Wireless network.
GSM services are a standard collection of applications and features available over the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) to mobile phone subscribers all over the world. The GSM standards are defined by the 3GPP collaboration and implemented in hardware and software by equipment manufacturers and mobile phone operators. The common standard makes it possible to use the same phones with different companies' services, or even roam into different countries. GSM is the world's most dominant mobile phone standard.
A prepaid mobile device, also known as a pay-as-you-go (PAYG), pay-as-you-talk, pay and go, go-phone, prepay or burner phone, is a mobile device such as a phone for which credit is purchased in advance of service use. The purchased credit is used to pay for telecommunications services at the point the service is accessed or consumed. If there is no credit, then access is denied by the cellular network or Intelligent Network. Users can top up their credit at any time using a variety of payment mechanisms.
Prepaid refers to services paid for in advance. Examples include postage stamps, attorneys, tolls, public transit cards like the Greater London Oyster card, pay as you go cell phones, and stored-value cards such as gift cards and preloaded credit cards.
Telcel, known as Radio Móvil Dipsa S.A.U., is a Mexican wireless telecommunications company, owned by América Móvil. Founded in 1984 and based in Mexico City, Telcel is the leading provider of wireless communications services in Mexico. As of December 31, 2006, Telcel's cellular network covered more than 63% of the geographical area of Mexico, including all major cities, and 90% of Mexico's population. Telcel holds concessions to operate a wireless network in all nine geographic regions in Mexico using both the 850 megahertz and 1900 megahertz radio spectrum. According to Cofetel, as of July 2008, Telcel's subscribers represented an estimated 77.2% share of the Mexican wireless market. Telcel is the largest wireless carrier in Mexico, with 77.2 million subscribers as of March 2020.
Virgin Plus is a provider of postpaid and prepaid wireless voice, text and data communications services throughout Canada. They also offer home Internet and TV services in select areas of Ontario and Quebec. Launched as Virgin Mobile Canada on March 1, 2005 as a joint venture between Virgin Group and BCE Inc., BCE took sole ownership on July 1, 2009 when it closed a deal to purchase the stake it did not already own. Virgin Plus calls its customers 'Members' and offers a Member Benefits program, which provides its customers with special offers, discounts, and VIP experiences.
Solo Mobile is a discontinued mobile virtual network operator in Canada started by Bell Mobility in 2000. Historically, Solo was considered a discount wireless brand, offering low price monthly plans with some unlimited options in certain cities. Its products and services were only sold in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec. The brand ceased advertising towards new customers since November 2011, and new activations were officially discontinued on May 17, 2012.
Origination in VOIP telephony refers to calls that originate in the PSTN public switched telephone network and are carried to their destination over the Internet.
See also: Maxis, CelcomDigi, Yes, Unifi
Koodo Mobile is a Canadian mobile flanker brand started by Telus in 2008 and mostly oriented toward younger customers. Koodo differs from its parent Telus by not requiring a fixed term contract. Koodo currently provides postpaid, prepaid, and wireless home phone services. Being a subsidiary of Telus, Koodo has been able to offer extensive coverage and a strong presence in mobile retailers. This allowed Koodo to gain a presence nationwide.
Real-time charging is an extension of call accounting that enables communications service providers (CSPs) to apply customer-specific rules for rating, discounting, promotions and settlements to better personalize the telecom experience. As CSPs begin to roll out advanced networks and services, offering and making money on these services requires the ability to do real-time charging.
The history of the prepaid mobile phones began in the 1990s when mobile phone operators sought to expand their market reach. Up until this point, mobile phone services were exclusively offered on a postpaid basis (contract-based), which excluded individuals with poor credit ratings and minors under the age of 18 In early 1991, Kenneth Johnson of Queens, New York, President of Alicomm Mobile, was the first to successfully create a prepaid cellular phone and Network. His company expanded to a Sales force from Maine to Florida. Two years later others would come out with similar systems.
Telecommunications billing is the group of processes of communications service providers that are responsible to collect consumption data, calculate charging and billing information, produce bills to customers, process their payments and manage debt collection.
Aio Wireless was a prepaid wireless service provider in the United States, wholly owned by AT&T Inc., launched in May 2013.
Data plan refers to data quotas from a telecommunications or data hosting contract. Data plans are offered by internet service providers. These include mobile data plans, offered on cellular networks, from cellular telephony companies, and those from conventional fixed land line links, amongst other forms of offered data communications. Network data hosting servers also offer plans based on data served, such as for websites.
Ting Mobile is an American mobile virtual network operator owned by Dish Wireless. Originally established in February 2012 by Tucows, Ting provides cellular service in the United States using the T-Mobile network, while some grandfathered accounts use the Verizon network. The service is sold off-contract with billing that adjusts the cost of service based on actual customer usage.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
