Only a couple of weeks after T-Mobile signed a deal to offer their services in 7-Eleven stores, the pre-paid phones are going to appear in local Family Dollar stores. T-Mobile has been slowly moving away from Radio Shack in recent months and today announced a partnership with Family Dollar to offer handsets and pre-paid services. In the past, pre-paid cards were available at the Family Dollar, but this announcement is mainly regarding the fact that a T-Mobile handset will also be available at the stores.
The phone that will be offered is the GS170, the same one that is available at the 7-Eleven stores. The LG GS170 is a flip phone with many standard features like Bluetooth 2.1 and a VGA camera. According to the T-Mobile website the phone comes with support for text and picture messaging, speaker phone, vibrate alert, caller ID, address book and is hearing aid compatible. Also available on the T-Mobile website are reviews of the phone and right now there are 50 reviews with an average of just over 3 stars out of 5. The overall size of the phone is 3.6 x 1.9 x 0.7 inches weighing only about 3 ounces. T-Mobile is claiming about 7.5 hours of talk time and 23 days of standby time as far as battery life goes.
The LG GS170 will cost you $30 and if you go with a T-Mobile unlimited talk, text and web plan that is another $50 per month. You cannot get any overage fees on the plan which is nice. The unlimited web is actually at 4G speeds for the first 100MB of data, and then the speed will be reduced to 2G speeds. For an unlimited pre-paid plan, that is pretty cheap when compared to any other unlimited plans available, pre-paid or otherwise.
The president of national retail for T-Mobile USA said, “T-Mobile is excited to work with Family Dollar to offer an affordable prepaid device to its customers who seek value and convenience when shopping.” The Family Dollar stores are likely to offer the accessories and other T-Mobile product in special displays at the store. T-Mobile also said that Family Dollar will handle the promotions and in-store marketing as well. There has been a big push from T-Mobile for the pre-paid offerings and that might be a hint into the fact that the 2-year contract is going by the wayside.
