You can buy songs a la carte, you can buy food a la carte, so why can't you buy data a la carte? Zact, a new wireless carrier, promises exactly that by giving customers flexible network plans, allowing them pay what they need for cellular service and not a cent more.
Zact is a subsidiary of ItsOn, a company specializing in mobile data consumption, and operates by through Sprint's wireless network. The company closely resembles a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO), which buys data wholesale from networks who own a given radio spectrum, like AT&T and Verizon, though Zact claims it isn't.
"An MVNO would take the same box as the carrier would buy and then create a network with the same offers. That is not what we do, we have a virtual service that has 10 times the flexibility," ItOn's Chief Executive Officer Greg Raleigh tells The Verge. "I would not spend my time on an MVNO."
Regardless, the company is offering customers a remarkable amount of control over how much they use, and pay for, data.
Zact lets customers choose how many voice minutes, text messages and general data they'll consume in a given month. That alone isn't unique, but the service's deep integration with its phones allows Zact to monitor how much, and what kind, of data you use, and offers deals based off that information.
If a Zact user, for example, consumes a lot of geolocation data, the service will pick up on that data usage and offer a consumer an unlimited navigation package. The same goes for applications: user can add, or make one-time purchases, additional data packages customized for Twitter, Google Maps or any application.
Zact also lets users customize data-sharing options, allowing to customers to share whole plans, or create sub-accounts where a main account holder can restrict data and application use - even based off the time of day.
The service will notify a consumer when they're running low on their allotted data plan, and will offer users the ability to purchase more data from their phone at any time. If a customer uses less data than what they paid for, Zact will credit the customer's account.
The carrier is only offering two phones for now: the LG Viper 4G LTE for $399 and the LG Optimus Elite for $199, though plans to add more phones to the network are in the pipes.
