This New Mobile Company Will Pay You To Use Your Phone Less
If you need an incentive to use your phone less, this company will give you one.
Nicolas Lobos | Unsplash If you’re tired of feeling attached to your phone but also need a little incentive to stop picking it up, you may be in luck. There’s a new mobile phone company that will actually pay you to use your phone less. So, if you need a nudge to put the phone down and actually focus on the present moment, this could be your chance.
Believe it or not, most people feel like they are tethered to their phones in a way that simply isn't healthy, but they don't know how to get away from it. A 2022 Gallup poll found that 58% of American adults felt like they used their phones too much. That’s a pretty significant majority of people who say they’re scrolling too often.
The company, Noble Mobile, will reward you for using less data on your phone.
Noble Mobile is what’s called a mobile virtual network operator, or MVNO. TechCrunch writer Amanda Silberling, who reported on the new company, defined it as “a company that resells wireless service using another carrier’s network infrastructure.” In the case of Noble Mobile, they’ll be using T-Mobile’s network.
An example of an MVNO that most of us are familiar with is Ryan Reynolds’ Mint Mobile, which was acquired by T-Mobile. Just like Mint Mobile had a well-known founder, so does Noble Mobile — entrepreneur and former presidential candidate Andrew Yang.
Rich Koele | Shutterstock
The idea is relatively simple. According to Silberling, Noble Mobile offers a single plan that gives customers unlimited talk, text, and data for $50 a month. Although you have unlimited data, if you use less than 20GB in a month, you get what the company calls “Noble Cash.” This can be redeemed for rewards or cash, depending on your preference. If you choose cash, you get roughly $1 for each GB under 20 that you use. So, if you used 15GB of data, you could get about $5 back.
The unique business model was based on Mark Cuban’s mail-order pharmacy.
Yang took inspiration from another famous entrepreneur when developing Noble Mobile. He compared the way that MVNOs can provide less expensive cell service to consumers to Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs, a mail-order pharmacy that “buys generic drugs in bulk and then resells them at a 15% markup,” per Yang.
As Yang pointed out, Cuban’s business model can be used in other industries and areas of life. “I see what Mark is doing there,” he stated. “Maybe he’s not profiteering to the same degree that some other companies are, but you can see he’s got a fine business there. And so I looked around and said, ‘Okay, what else can I ‘Cost Plus’ in American life that we all spend money on?’”
Of course, this will only help you if you’re not connected to a Wi-Fi network.
The idea does have some limitations. Phones only use the data on their plan when they’re not connected to Wi-Fi. So, if you’re at home and on Wi-Fi, you could still use your phone to your heart’s content. The idea is that you’ll be incentivized to use it less in public when you’re not connected to a Wi-Fi network. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use your phone less at home, though.
Los Muertos Crew | Pexels
Dr. Dimitri Christakis, the principal investigator of the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at Seattle Children’s Research Institute, told Consumer Reports, “The most important thing is that you are intentional about the way you engage with your phone and not let it take over your life, which it’s designed to do.” This might require you to make some changes at home, too, but they’ll be worth it.
As for Yang, he’s convinced Noble Mobile is the way of the future. “If we give people money back for doing something that they want to do, which is use their phone a little bit less, maybe we can effectuate a change,” he stated.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
