Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Helium Mobile reportedly plans to end its free Zero Plan for existing subscribers on June 11.
- Customers who take no action will apparently be moved to the $15/month Air Plan.
- After ending the plan for new subscribers last month, Helium told us at the time that existing Zero Plan subscribers were “not impacted.”
The haters said a free carrier mobile plan wouldn’t be sustainable — and they were correct. Honestly, great call from the haters. Helium Mobile made waves last year with its Zero Plan, offering a limited amount of data, texts, and calls for no monthly fee at a time when even cheap phone plans usually still involve, you know, paying for them. It already stopped offering the plan to new customers last month, and now the free ride appears to be ending for existing subscribers too.
As detailed by The Mobile Report, Helium Mobile has emailed Zero Plan customers to inform them that the plan will be discontinued on June 11. The company reportedly told subscribers that the free plan is “not sustainable long term,” and that customers who take no action will be automatically moved to Helium’s $15/month Air Plan. After we reported last month that Helium had stopped offering the Zero Plan to new subscribers, the carrier told us that “existing Zero plan subscribers are not impacted.” Based on this latest email, they very much are.
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The Zero Plan originally launched with 3GB of data, 300 texts, and 100 minutes of calls for free, which was always a bold proposition in the US carrier market. The plan had already lost some of its original shine earlier this year when Helium began requiring customers to keep a card on file to cover taxes and fees. The carrier also ended its older $5 and $20 plans, despite earlier promises that customers could keep them as long as they remained customers. That context makes this latest change feel a little more ominous about what might be happening behind the scenes.
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The Mobile Report also points to some Reddit backlash over the move, including a screenshot showing one user apparently being banned from r/HeliumMobile after suggesting that a class-action lawsuit could follow. Clearly, the change is landing poorly with some of the people who signed up for the free plan, and Helium may be in fire-fighting mode.
If you’re a Zero Plan customer, you have less than three weeks to act or risk being moved to a paid plan. Free was fun while it lasted, but Helium Mobile now seems ready to find out how many Zero Plan users are still interested once the price is no longer zero.
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