Wal-Mart offering their own branded wireless plans

The Wal-Mart branded offering will be based on the no.4 network operator T-Mobile. The network itself has limited coverage compared to others. I believe, they are currently struggling to raise capitol to upgrade their networks 4G. From wal-mart side, they do have greater retail presence and branded for cheaper products. The proposed voice plan is not cheaper to the rival MetroPCS offering of $40 unlimited calls, text and web. They currently expanding to more markets and upgrading their networks to LTE. Similar to wal-Mart, the electronics retailer BestBuy partnered with clearwire to offer similar service with more emphasis on data plans rather than voice. Overall, the wal-Mart plan encouraging non-data users to try and later buy data, which make sense for the segment, they are targeting. Another biggest problem from the consumer standpoint would be the initial investment on the handset. Wal-mart can show little retail muscle to get the handset prices down compared to the MetroPCS.