Internal Radio Shack information shows that the company is planning its own mobile network.
So instead of only peddling service from Sprint, Verizon, and others, store employees will try to get you to sign on for Radio Shack’s own plan.
The screenshot, found by Engadget, shows that the store could offer $50 per month for 1 GB of data and $60 for 2.5 GB.
It would be what’s called a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), which means it would simply use another network’s service but license it and brand it as its own.
The company is apparently in talks with prepaid mobile carrier Cricket Wireless, which has jumped to the 7th largest mobile service provider in the US.
Cricket is the carrier that made history by being the first prepaid service operator to offer the iPhone.
The history of MVNOs is hardly in Radio Shack’s favor. There hasn’t really been a single huge success story. Other major brands like Disney and ESPN have tried it and pretty much all of them ended up scrapping the service.
But Radio Shack has a unique advantage in that its customers already value the store’s dominance in mobile phone sales. It has a large following, especially among budget-conscious and low-income families.
