Is Twilio Wireless the beginning of the end of big telco cell phone plans?

#1

Post by ryanweinstein » Wed, Apr 18, 2018, 2:01 AM UTC

Noob here, but from my understanding of the programmable wireless product, a 3rd party service could essentially buy 500 sims (min package), bundle Twilio programmable voice add a minor up charge and offer up a global cell phone package and sim to perspective customers. I know the price today is a bit higher that what you can get with the big telcos but the convenience is far superior(if you're a constant traveler).

Do you think this service has the opportunity to replace current cell phone plans, maybe begin the long awaited cord cutting from these monoliths?

Re: Is Twilio Wireless the beginning of the end of big telco cell phone plans?

#2

Post by bdavid21wnec » Wed, Apr 18, 2018, 4:15 AM UTC

I wanted it to be. I first started looking at it when it was in beta. I wanted to buy a bunch of 4g usb dongles from alibaba. There are a ton of cheap good ones that just require a SIM card. What stopped me is the pricing. When I looked it was about $25-$50 for 1-2gb of data. For comparison I spend $30 a month with Boost mobile for 3gb of data. That was a huge stopping point for me. No one is gonna buy your service if it’s twice as expensive as the big guys. If pricing goes down or you figure out how to scale very quickly where the price drops to like $0.0125 per mb, then you are getting competitive. In my mind voice doesn’t matter as much as many will be buying your service for pay-as-you-go data

Re: Is Twilio Wireless the beginning of the end of big telco cell phone plans?

#3

Post by ryanweinstein » Wed, Apr 18, 2018, 9:37 AM UTC

bdavid21wnec wrote: post #2

I wanted it to be. I first started looking at it when it was in beta. I wanted to buy a bunch of 4g usb dongles from alibaba. There are a ton of cheap good ones that just require a SIM card. What stopped me is the pricing. When I looked it was about $25-$50 for 1-2gb of data. For comparison I spend $30 a month with Boost mobile for 3gb of data. That was a huge stopping point for me. No one is gonna buy your service i…

Sad but true...

Re: Is Twilio Wireless the beginning of the end of big telco cell phone plans?

#4

Post by WhiteOwlLion » Wed, Apr 18, 2018, 4:51 PM UTC

bdavid21wnec wrote: post #2

I wanted it to be. I first started looking at it when it was in beta. I wanted to buy a bunch of 4g usb dongles from alibaba. There are a ton of cheap good ones that just require a SIM card. What stopped me is the pricing. When I looked it was about $25-$50 for 1-2gb of data. For comparison I spend $30 a month with Boost mobile for 3gb of data. That was a huge stopping point for me. No one is gonna buy your service i…

Their target audience is enterprise. The individual rates are to discourage you from buying. They want to sell services not hardware (unless in bulk), so their pricing makes sense. If you want consumer deals, go to companies that target consumers.