Portland, Ore. – MVNO Consumer Cellular, which targets the 50-plus age group with no-contract postpaid service, isn’t forgetting about consumers who want a basic flip phone even though the majority of phones sold today are smartphones.
The company launched a $35 Huawei-made Envoy flip phone, which is the first phone developed specifically for the MVNO. The phone is available through all of its distribution channels, including direct sales, Sears, Target, and RadioShack franchise locations.
The Envoy is one of two 3G flip phones in the company’s portfolio and joins seven smartphones, including the iPhone 5s, 5c and 4s. Four Android phones are priced from $100 to $150. The iPhone 5s is priced at $150 plus 20 monthly payments of $25 for a total of $650. The iPhone 5c is priced at $100 plus 18 monthly payments of $25 each for a total of $550.
The Envoy, available in red or black with soft-touch coating, offers 2.4-inch main screen, external screen, text messaging, Internet access, an MP3 music player, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, 8GB microSD card slot, speakerphone, 4.7-hour talk time, and 16.6-day standby time. It lacks GPS.
Consumer Cellular offers seven voice plans starting at $10/month with all minutes priced at 25 cents. Other plans range from $15 for 200 minutes all the way up to 5,000 minutes for $60.
Five text/data plans range from $2.50 for 100 texts and 10MB of data to $30 for 15,000 texts and 2GB of data.
The company, which resells AT&T service, entered the home-phone market last year with the launch of a cellular base station that plugs into a home phone to carry incoming and outgoing calls over the MVNO’s cellular network. Consumers can assign their home’s existing phone number to the device.
