By Wailin Wong
| Sprint and Wal-Mart are launching a new prepaid wireless phone service this week aimed at “no-frills” customers who use cell phones infrequently.

The service, called Common Cents Mobile, will be available on Saturday in more than 700 Wal-Mart stores across the country. No stores in the Chicago area are part of the initial launch, but customers can order the handsets and activate service online at walmart.com or commoncentsmobile.com. The service runs on Sprint’s nationwide network.

Like other prepaid services, Sprint’s new offering doesn’t require a
contract or a credit check. Common Cents charges 7 cents per minute and
rounds down to the nearest whole minute, rather than up like most
wireless plans. Sprint said its service is an alternative to the recent
crop of prepaid wireless promotions that offer unlimited talking and
texting.

“In recent months, consumers seeking no-frills, pay-by-the-minute plans
have been somewhat overlooked with the popularity of unlimited plans in
the market,” Dan Schulman, president of Sprint”s prepaid group, said in a
statement. “These customers want to stay connected — to a point — but
don’t want to waste time or money on services they don”t use.”

Common Cents customers will be able to add minutes to their account with
$20 or $30 refill cards, which will be sold at Wal-Mart or online.
Sprint is also offering unlimited messaging for $20 per month. The
initial range of handsets range from an LG device at $19.77 to a Kyocera
phone at $69.77.