The banners and billboards are purple. So are the t-shirts and hats worn by men who catch passersby outside MetroPCS stories on the business thoroughfares of Broadway and St. Nicholas Street in Washington Heights. And the purple seems to multiply every week. One local wag calls MetroPCS the neighborhood’s new McDonald’s: they’re inexpensive, and there is a store on nearly every block.
Across the nation, cell phone service providers AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-mobile are household names. But in parts of New York City like northern Manhattan and the Bronx, the fifth largest cell phone service provider in the United States is gaining ground on its better-known rivals. For a fixed monthly rate, MetroPCS offers unlimited calls, texts and Internet service. Service is purchased month-to-month, without the long-term contracts that other companies require. Like other providers cell phones are sold separately, but the no-contract policy is rapidly making MetroPCS an attractive option for people with tight budgets.
MetroPCS launched its first market in South Florida in 2002. Adam Bree, the New York region director of marketing for MetroPCS, says after South Florida and other successful starts in markets like Philadelphia and San Francisco, New York was the logical next step. The company came to the city just two years ago.
“It’s very straightforward and, it’s a service that was long overdue in a market like New York,” said Bree.
In New York, late payment fees and contract breaks from traditional cell phone service can present unexpected and costly expenses for residents in communities like Washington Heights, where many people work in low-income jobs and live pay check to pay check.
Near 161st Street and Broadway, Saul Vega says the shop where he works, like most in the area, opened in February of last year.
“When we first started, not everybody knew what MetroPCS was all about. [Some] traveled back and forth between Miami and New York, so they kind of knew. But now, it’s all over the state and all over the city and every company knows who MetroPCS is now,” said Vega.
Today there are over a hundred locations that provide MetroPCS service in the five boroughs of New York. The only other provider that comes close to that number is Verizon, with 60 locations. The numbers include official stores, as well as third-party retailers, or independent storefronts that provide technical and billing support for the providers. A map on MetroPCS.com shows stores clustered mostly in Washington Heights, the Bronx and Jackson Heights, where most of the residents are immigrants from places like the Dominican Republic or Colombia.
For generations, calling home meant going to a bodega and purchasing a calling card, a tedious effort, with 10-digit pin numbers, automated messages and several options that must be selected before any ringing can occur. MetroPCS service replaces the need for calling cards, and thus appeals to a demographic that wants inexpensive, pay-as-you-go phone service to foreign countries.
“MetroPCS has their international rate plans absolutely for free for house phones, unlimited. So it has been a great service to the community,” said Ricky Balboa, one of the employees at a bustling store on West 181st Street.
Sales pitch aside, Balboa is referring to a $60 fixed monthly plan that allows those away from their home to make international phone calls to land lines.
While appealing and a first of its kind, this service can be limiting. Cell phones are increasingly taking over in places like Africa and the Caribbean, where landline telephone service is poor. So if a MetroPCS customer wants to reach loved ones with cell phones, calling cards may remain the preferred way to pay for international phone calls.
David Samberg, a spokesperson for Verizon Wireless in New York contends that pre-paid plans are nothing new. Though Verizon relies mostly on contracts, pre-paid services have always been an option for his customers. He says that the people who want pre-paid wireless services are those with little credit or those who prescribe to a cash culture, which aligns with some of the immigrant communities in Northern Manhattan and the Bronx.
Either way, MetroPCS has been remarkably profitable.
The Wall Street Journal reported in August that MetroPCS’ earnings nearly tripled in their second quarter report. MetroPCS added another 223,000 net customers.
Representatives from MetroPCS and Verizon say regional numbers are unavailable, but according to their company filings, MetroPCS has about 8 million customers in the United States, in comparison to Verizon’s 90 million.
The numbers put the local hype into perspective: MetroPCS still has a long way to go.
