Liberty Wireless

Telecom
1

sovashadow first posted about annual plans from Liberty Wireless on Ebay.
https://www.nthcircle.com/forum/deals/1357-hot-deals?start=790#43410

More listings from the seller here:
Liberty Wireless: Ebay listings

Others pointed out that the site https://www.libertywireless.com/
seems badly outdated, and lacking a lot of info. (Thanks, mmfacemm and isamorph!)

A few things in the Ebay listings seemed unusual to me--the seller is also selling a range of 'Vortex' batteries, and there is a mention near the bottom of Cintex Wireless. So, I decided to tug gently on those strings.

Eventually, I came to a linked-in page for Paul Greene, who is listed as CEO of Liberty Wireless, Cintex Wireless, Vortex Cellular, Prepaid Wireless Group, and Consumer Network Services. Busy guy!

A little more info:
https://www.cintexwireless.com/AboutUs.php is a provider of Lifeline services in Arkansas, Maryland, Rhode Island, Maine, & West Virginia. The connection between Liberty Wireless and Cintex may be similar to what we saw with Hello Mobile and Q-Link.

http://pwgnetworksolutions.com/ is an MVNE (Mobile Virtual Network Enabler, or the middle-man between a smaller MVNO and a carrier.)
(Also Prepaid Wireless Group . Sorry, I can't remember path I took to either of these, and I can't be sure either/or is directly associated with Liberty.)

Vortex Cellular sells a line of cell phones (likely China-sourced) that seem targeted towards small MVNOs who need phones to sell. (Seems to tie in with PWG's MVNE business, and explains the Vortex batteries in liberty-vortex's Ebay store.)

Also ran across an article from a number of years ago that told how Paul Greene was buying up smaller failed MVNOs.

So, perhaps, Liberty Wireless is a retail-side operation made possible by Cintex's Lifeline phone business, and PWG's position as an MNVE. The old article might also explain why the Liberty Wireless site seems to be badly out of date, and Liberty wasn't on anyone's radar here-- because it may have been a 'warehoused' MVNO now being resurrected.

I'm not sure that any of this should make anyone more comfortable with buying a 12-month plan, other than that Paul Greene does not seem to be a novice in the MVNO world. Just thought it was interesting.

2

Well, it has 14-day money-back guarantee! Nothing to lose except some small postage cost should you don't like it. GSM is always better than Sprint network, in that you can switch phone simply by switching sim card into that phone.

I guess it mostly sells through eBay, so it doesn't want to spend money on updating its website. As long as it offers money-back guarantee, the risk of giving a try is pretty low.

I'd give them a try if I need a low-cost carrier, but I'm on the free 3 months trial from Mint Mobile right now. Well if someone tries them, please let us know how it goes.

3

I had a feeling I've seen Prepaid Wireless Group mentioned before....
It seems to show up in the APN of several T-Mobile MVNOs (APN: pwg) for US Mobile (GSM), Surgephone, and formerly for TPO.

Even more interesting, this:Ting recently stated that they're not going to discontinue T-Mobile service in the near future, despite earlier saying it looked like they would.
in

Ting was quoted as saying: (Bold added:)

"I am pleased to report that we have reached a subsequent agreement with T-Mobile and a mobile virtual network enabler (or MVNE), named Prepaid Wireless Group (PWG), that essentially eliminates that expense and risk. Prepaid Wireless Group will now be considered our direct provider of T-Mobile network access. The new deal accomplishes a few important things: It extends our ability to support customers on the T-Mobile network for another three years starting this December, with an option to extend further. It allows us to continue to activate subscribers on the T-Mobile network if we choose. And it maintains our current T-Mobile wholesale rates and gives us very reasonable annual revenue guarantees."

Still no guarantee that Liberty won't fail, of course-- or that they'll provide decent service. But it does reduce my concerns. Seems like they ought to have access to decent wholesale pricing, and the knowledge to run an MVNO. But of course, the circular anti-logic is if they know how to do that stuff, why haven't they done it with the Liberty website?

4

Joe Paonessa at Bestmvno has an article about Liberty Wireless and, in addition to other mentioned plans, the below $240 annual plan caught my eye because included in the price is a free Umidigi A5 Pro phone that is selling for $130 on Amazon.

"$240 Annual Plan With Free Smartphone
This plan works out to an average cost of $20/month for unlimited talk, text, and data with the first 3GB of data each month at 4G LTE data speeds. Included in the price is a free 6.3" UMIDIGI A5 Pro smartphone. There is a $10 shipping charge to buy this phone and SIM kit. The item listing says that this is a sale that ends in 3 days which would put the end date on 2/13/2020. It's quite possible the listing gets extended though."

5

Interesting thanks. The $60 unlimited talk and text plan is interesting too.

6

Anyone given them a try yet?

7

I haven't used the service yet, but I did purchase the $60 one year unlimited t&t plan via eBay, which will be used by someone else. Interestingly, not long after I ordered, I received a message from the seller who said they had looked up where I live and saw that the coverage was poor and I should cancel the order. I responded by saying that T-mobile coverage in my area is 4G LTE as attested to by experience and what the T-mobile coverage map states, which they can look at and see with their own eyes. The seller responded with a sorry("Our system wouldn't allow us to create an account under that zip code! ") and said the order is on the way. So, it's a bit odd but maybe a good sign that the seller suggested the order be canceled while also being odd the seller, similar to Mint mobile, was using some outdated coverage map or info.

Edit: Received another message from "liberty-vortex" who said that their Tmobile system wouldn't allow them to process my order with my zipcode but if I would supply them with another acceptable T-mobile zip code they could override the system and process the order. I gave them a zipcode that was accepted and the order is on the way. I must say the vortex seller communicates very well and quickly, FWIW. Also, not the fastest eBay shipping since I won't receive the sim until about the 19th of this month.

8

I contacted Liberty Wireless support via email and got a speedy reply today.
I asked how long I had to activate a plan purchased on ebay.
They responded that the sim cards expire in 2 years so the plan has to be activated before then.
But they encourage people to activate much sooner since they offer a 14 day return policy on their plans.
Most interesting is they said they plan on having these deals in April, when the phone I'm going to switch to Liberty ends it's plan with another carrier. Sounds encouraging so far. I'll report back after activating my 1GB ebay plan. I only purchased it early to take advantage of the 5% discount on ebay.

9

Thanks for the info about the two-year sim card expiration, which sounds too good to be true and I doubt anyone will take the time to confirm the two-year expiration date.

10

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As with most of these eBay offers YMMV. For whatever reason my acct. didn't "qualify" for the 5% eBay bucks promo.

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If you are attempting to use this Coupon to buy items from both managed payments seller(s) and non-managed payments seller(s), your cart may be divided into two separate transactions. If that happens, this Coupon will be applied to the first transaction if it meets the minimum purchase requirement. If the first transaction does not meet the purchase requirement, this Coupon will not be applied. If your second transaction meets the purchase requirement, you must apply this Coupon during the second transaction.

11

FWIW: I just got my sim from Liberty Wireless which arrival was much faster than the estimated 2/17 date. I can confirm the 2 years activate by date since my sim says to activate by 9/16/ 2022, but I won't wait until then since there's a real possibility I won't be here to do so. The only requirement to activate the card is to make one call out, which seems to make sense for a t&t only plan.

12

I just received my sim card today, as well. I received the same activation instructions to make any outbound call. I'll activate my card within a month. I'm curious how making any outbound call activates the sim card and selects a phone number? I also need to figure out how to check my data balance since I haven't set up any kind of account yet. Perhaps it's like Speed Talk where you can check your balance and add data or switch plans by typing in the assigned phone number without having to create an account. I'll find out soon enough. But so far, it looks promising and the company has been around for 10+ years.

13

Even though the sim will be used by someone else, I went ahead and activated it today just to be sure it worked. I put it in a dual sim phone and it showed a good signal and T-Mobile showed up in the sim card settings but not the phone#, which did show up after making the first phone call. So all went well. BTW, if for some reason one doesn't see the phone number in the phone settings after the first call, one can call 800-444-4444 which will tell you the number you are calling from.

Since @joeuser got a plan with data, I too wonder how one would check usage since the Liberty website is non-functional apart from directing everyone to call or email support for all problems and questions. Perhaps CS has a number one can call to check data usage on one's account. Also, by calling or messaging the seller, vortex-liberty, maybe one can get an answer to how to set up an account, check data, and get a refill.

14

The Liberty Wireless website has been updated, which may be a good sign.

$10 a month or $100 yearly for Unlimited T&T + 1GB (hard capped data) on the T Mobile network. When data is used up one can buy 1 GB for $5.

A self-care app for Liberty is now available on the Play Store. EDIT: I could not find it in the Play Store--so coming soon. And an account can now be set up on their website.

15

Good - looks like they are really wanting to make something of this.

16

Just to update and mention the Liberty Wireless android app is now in the play store and can be downloaded.

17

Liberty Wireless latest plans.

$10 a month or $100($8.33 a month) yearly for Unlimited T&T + 1GB (hard capped data) with hotspot on the T Mobile network. When data is used up one can buy 1 GB for $5, which is cheap.

https://libertywireless.com/plans.php

18

Has anything changed/updated since you mentioned this plan above 3 mo. ago? Hotspot added is only difference I see from previous mention?

19

Below is a link to the changes PPPN mentioned, although the $10 unlimited t&t 1GB plan has been the same for sometime, and so not really changed.

20

$94 ($7.75 a month) for a one year plan on T-Mobile network with unlimited t&t + 1GB per month. 1GB top up for $5.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/10-Mo-Liberty-Wireless-Prepaid-Wireless-Phone-Plan-/174157748999