No passion for prepaid?

U.S. Wireless carriers are quickly running into a dilemma. “Basically, all of the people who have decent credit already have phones,” said Roger Entner, senior analyst for The Yankee Group. “Credit is now the predominant barrier toward increasing wireless penetration in this country.” The answer is obviously prepaid services or the new hybrid payment services carriers have been exploring in recent years. With hybrid payment, customers still pay for their minutes in advance, but they receive a bill and month-to-month service just like post-paid customers. The problem is that carriers don't seem to be getting very far — or trying all that hard — to develop comprehensive prepaid strategies. According to The Yankee Group's data, the percentage of total users that are prepaid or hybrid subscribers has remained practically static since 2000, between 11% and 12%. But if carriers want to grow, they will have to go after the prepaid market more seriously, Entner said. In fact, he predicts by 2005 the majority of net adds among U.S. subscribers will be prepaid.