Republic Wireless Nixes Unlimited, Gives Refunds For Unused Data -

Republic Wireless today announced it is shaking up its prepaid service plans, eliminating unliminted data, and instead refunding users for unused data allotments. According to the Republic announcement over at the company's forums, users can sign up for the $5 or $10 base plans, add any of the company's data allotments, then get a refund at the beginning of every month for any data they didn't use.

Previously, Republic had been offering users unlimited 3G cellular data for $25 per month and unlimited 4G data for $40 per month.

Now, users sign up for the base plans and then choose from a range of data allotments, which include $17.50 for 500 megabytes of high-speed cellular data, $25 for 1 gigabyte of high-speed data and $40 for 2 gigabytes of high-speed data. Users also have the choice of pay-as-you-go data priced at $15 per gigabyte.

During trials of the refund system, Republic says the average user average user paid just $14.78 last month.

"The cellular industry, largely dominated by 2 giant companies, has done a brilliant job convincing people that they need huge buckets of cellular data," states Republic CEO David Morken. "The truth is that most people are within range of WiFi the majority of their day and therefore never use all the data the carrier made them buy. The industry profits wildly from this practice - an estimated $52 billion annually, and we are determined to change that."


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