Boost Mobile unlimited plan: Too good to be true?

By on Feb 17, 2009 at 7:55 AM
Services February 17, 2009

Ahh the battle of the unlimited plans. Last month we learned of a new offering from Boost Mobile that seemed as though it would come in as the obvious winner, for those in areas well-covered by Sprint’s iDEN network at least. $50 each month, unlimited everything – or so we thought. As has become an unfortunate commonplace among service providers in various industries, unlimited doesn’t always mean unlimited and Zatz Not Funny! has inadvertently uncovered some troubling verbiage in the terms and conditions tied to Boost’s monthly unlimited plan. While searching for a new wireless broadband service provider, Zatz learned that Boost prohibits “unreasonable” usage and uses familiarly vague language to give the company an out in the event a subscriber is costing it too much money with heavy usage.

So, Boost unlimited subscribers, you should probably be aware that according to Boost’s terms you cannot use your handset to participate on conference calls, exchange an “unusually high” number of messages or place an “abnormally high number of calls”. You also cannot have atypical web usage and your calls cannot be repeatedly of an “unusually long” duration. How many calls are too many? How much web is too much? How many messages constitute an “unusually high” amount? Apparently, that’s for Boost to decide if it chooses to cut you off. Companies have been sued and fined time and time again for these shenanigans and we wouldn’t be surprised if Boost is well on its way to learning that the hard way. Hey Attorney General Cuomo… Where you at?

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  • Tammi

    Have had nextel for 10 yrs. Pay 140.00 total for 2000 min shared on 2 phones. Basic service you would think they would perk it up for those of us that have been loyal. Am now switching to boost for unlimited

    • Joni

      Tammi,
      it’s prolly not my business but alittle word of advice “boost stinks” you don’t get ur text messages all the time, u will like 2 days later at 3:00 in the morning!! They are awful to deal with!! I switched to straight talk, $45.00 dollars a month unlimited cheaper phones great service!!

  • gabriella

    that is NOT true! i have unlimitated text and calls, long distance , i use my web all the time and i only pay 50 dollars a month boost mobile is great

    • tocami

      Boost is great phone

  • dimples53

    Boost mobile is the best phone service goin to me i love dealin with them when it comes down to it.No contract,no extra hidden charges,unlimited mins all for $50.also long distance &unlimited texting.I myself have been dealin with boost for more than 7 yrs and am not thinkn about changing my service.

  • Noah

    Almost all phone companies and ISPs have the same terms, you don’t have to be a genius to figure that out. Note that it mentions in the fine text something like “as compared with other users on similar plans in the same service area”. That means if the average is 200 messages per day and you use 10,000, you will probably be cut off. Likewise, if other people make 20 calls and you make 100 calls per day you will likely be cut off.

    The intention here is to allow personal unlimited use, but not to allow obviously commercial use on a budget personal plan.

  • purple*gurl

    im confused now!what phone should i get?

  • BoostMeBaby!

    Regardless of the fine print, the Boost Mobile Unlimited Plan has been the undisputed value-winner for me for years compared to the other cell services that I’ve tried such as SprintPCS, T-Mobile, and MetroPCS. Those other services often hit me with either spotty coverage or absurd (up to $400) service fees, whereas with Boost Unlimited my bottom-line bill was always essentially the same (~$47/mo. under my service offering from years ago) even after 1-2 hour conversations (many of which were cross-country) nearly every day the month! And that included good voice mail quality, good talk quality, and service coverage that was second only to Verizon (which costs about 25% more).

  • Johnny Brown

    Guess who owns Boost??? Would you believe SPRINT

  • http://www.nomonthlybillmobile.com NoMonthlyBillMobile

    Boost is great but for true unlimited service with no caps check out http://www.nomonthlybillmobile.com. You can even eliminate your monthly bill with this service by refering others.

    • John B

      This link takes me to a page where it says it can give me info on a great phone BUT I must give up my email addy to them to email me. I’d say this is a service with crap service.

  • tyler owens

    boost is the best and you do get unlimited everyhting ! for 50$ a month

  • David L

    Unlimited means unlimited unrestricted freedom to make as many service calls or use a feature as many times as one desires. They should just come out in the beginning and say that there is a set limit to usage of the phone, instead of decieving the customers to make a quick buck.
    How pathetic and pittyful : (

  • http://boostmobile chris alspach

    Does the $50 card cover the taxes at the company.
    I know we pay them at the retail but do they double tax.

  • Chin-gon

    this is the deal they did the fine print becauce there was people abusing the service in all the borderlands (JUAREZ TIJUANA ETC)>>> people use unlimited phones and do bussines, one peso a minute about (10 cents) service to call anywhere in the usa So this is why they put the fine print but there is a difference of you calling 35 different numbers a month AVERAGE and this people having 1000 different numbers so dont worry if you use your phone alot even if you call 100 different numbers you are fine

  • Cathy

    Their “unlimited” web sure does have limits. You can only visit sites that Boost deams worthy I guess. I can’t even get my banks web page. I can’t even get Google!!

  • KCG

    I love the freedom of Boost in terms of not having a contract and their $50 unlimited plan is a real money saver over my $110+ previous bills – saving $60 a month is super awesome these days.

    The phone selection is much better than I expected and still pretty affordable. The Sprint powered calling network is giving me pretty dependable coverage with the ocassional dead zone. The internet can be a little slow depending on the area, but nothing I haven’t seen before.

    Speaking of dependable, Boost’s parent company Sprint has a whole new program out that is really helping people get and keep a cell phone.

    Their “Assurance Wireless” program is being in offered in five states and exclusively to low income, qualifying families and its an amazing deal. Qualifers can get both a phone and 200 minutes, with no fees or contract, for free with the potential to expand their program at. 10 a minute. While the program is new, I can only hope it will expand to more states and people who could also use a plan like this.

    I might not be low-income, but the savings would totally help me. Times are tough and having a cell phone is a must so click here for Sprint president’s email address: http://assurancewireless.webs.com and let him know that everyone could use these savings.

  • MsBossy

    Boost is cool and I like them because I don’t have to babysit my minutes and as like everyone else it’s only 50 buck a month. The thing I don’t like about boost is when something goes wrong with your phone and believe me it will just get ready to buy a new one or play phone tag with this 800 number they give you. Boost act like they don’t want to replace yo phone for sh**. But as far as the phone service it self I like it :)

  • strontium90

    I recently bought into Boost and I’m still not sure. If it get stupid I’ll cut my losses and use the phone for a target. As for the words “prolly” or “probly” the correct usage is “Probably” with two “B”‘s.

    • http://yahoo Gabriel

      I don’t understand, people know they can’t spell and they still don’t use spell check.

  • john

    i used to have boost for about three months and i can say that its not the best at all. youll get your text messages super late or not at all and when you report it to the cell phone people they tell you to “cut your phone on and off every once in a while” <— fuck that. when it comes to cell phone services i believe you get what you pay for. go for verizon if you can afford it

  • Jay

    well i broke my phone. and now im getting a blackberry from boost. but im still not sure.i just like the phone

  • casey

    if your complaining about late messages maybe you should check your coverage area. no troubles here on boosts 60 a month boostberry plan. was on verizon paying 120 a month and got out of the with early termination fees. (yay..)

  • http://facebook clan56

    im bout 2 get a phone i just want 2 know if i should get a phone from boost mobile i want know if boost mobile is gud or not be4 i get ma phone can sumone help me make up ma mind?

  • leileib

    i live in the charleston area of wv and i’m thinking of gettin boost mobile. but their coverage map looks spotty. does anyone else live in this area and have boost? if so, do you get good service? please reply asap.

  • Phelpsboy

    not true. i always have like 10000 text a month and always do that stuff and its never charged me more. boost gets a AAA+ in my book

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