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| Atlanta
Cellular / Wireless Service ? Flat Rates? |
Question:
Who is your favorite ? Who is
the worst ? (signal & customer
service)
1 AT&T Wireless 2. Cingular
(Bellsouth) 4. Nextel 3. Powertel
4. Sprint PCS 5. Verizon (Airtouch)
Answer:
One day last July, someone somewhere
in America walked into a storefront,
clicked on a mouse, or dialed a toll-free
number and signed up for cell-phone
service. This unheralded event marked
an impressive milestone: In just a
decade, the cellular industry had
recruited its one hundred millionth
customer. What accounts for this burgeoning
success? Clearly, service providers
have sold peripatetic consumers on
the dial-anywhere convenience of wireless
telephony. Industry leaders—including
familiar names like AT&T Wireless
and Sprint PCS, as well as newly merged
entities like Verizon Wireless (created
out of Bell Atlantic, GTE, and others)
and Cingular Wireless (comprising
mainly BellSouth and SBC Wireless)—have
stitched together nationwide networks.
Meanwhile, cell-phone manufacturers—chiefly,
Audiovox, Ericsson, Kyocera (formerly
Qualcomm), Motorola, Nokia, and Samsung—are
churning out sleeker, less-expensive
digital handsets equipped with longer-lived
batteries and a full complement of
conveniences, such as voice-activated
dialing, plentiful memory for frequently
called numbers, caller ID, and voice
mail. The newest models now come packed
with high-tech options like instant
messaging, e-mail access, and simple
web browsing.
Yet despite this undeniable progress,
problems that have plagued the industry
from its infancy continue to burden
consumers with inflated costs and
frequent and frustrating service breakdowns.
In selecting a service plan, for example,
you still must navigate a maze of
widely varying charges for calls made
during "peak" and "off-peak"
minutes, while "roaming"
outside of your home area, and when
dialing long distance. Maps that purport
to show where service is available
often fail to disclose "dead"
spots where calls can be blocked and
pockets where towers that carry cellular
signals are scarce. And handset technologies
that may operate on two frequency
bands and in any of four incompatible
digital formats further cloud consumers'
choices. Change carriers and chances
are good that you'll have to toss
away your handset and give up your
phone number, to boot.
In short, what appears to be missing
from the wireless industry's successful
formula is a key ingredient—reliable
basic service that's easy to understand.
This was borne out in a survey we
conducted last fall of a nationally
representative sample of 1,541 cell-phone
users. We found that only about half
of the respondents were completely
satisfied or very satisfied with their
cell-phone plan—among the lower satisfaction
scores for consumer services we track—comparable
to satisfaction levels for trial lawyers
and airlines. One respondent in eight
was dissatisfied with his or her current
carrier. Investigations by state attorneys
general and class lawsuits alleging
pricing irregularities, misleading
claims about coverage, or unreliable
service against AT&T Wireless,
Sprint PCS, and U.S. Cellular, among
others, are under way or have recently
been settled.
Whether you're new to the ranks of
cell-phone users or are a veteran
of the wireless wars wondering whether
it's time to upgrade, this report
can help you make sense of the choices.
We'll explain how to select a service
plan that fits your needs and budget.
(A sampler of plans compares offerings
suited to most nonbusiness wireless
users from the major national and
regional carriers.) In All about handsets,
we report on the evolving technology,
present our test findings of 13 widely
available cell phones, and explain
how to select models based on features
that matter most—how easy it is to
make and receive calls, and how clear
those calls sound.
We'll also bring you up to speed on
the latest findings on key safety
questions: the radio-frequency emissions
that have raised health concerns and
the risks of using a cell phone while
driving. That information, along with
troubling questions about whether
you can count on 911 emergency calls
getting through, can be found in Cellular
health and safety.
The plan's the thing
As dazzling as the technology in those
sleek handsets can be, it's the service
plan you choose—not the hardware—that
will absorb the bulk of your cellular
budget. Indeed, the technology that
the carrier you select uses to process
call signals will determine which
handsets you can consider. That's
why you should shop first for a plan
that offers the best value for the
times when you're likeliest to call.
Rudimentary service. For the most
basic service offered through so-called
prepaid plans, you purchase calling
minutes in replenishable allotments,
usually at top per-minute rates. Typically,
the prepaid option is used by consumers
with brief or spotty credit histories
who cannot otherwise qualify for an
annual contract, or by young people
whose parents pay their bills and
want to limit their calling.
But this can also be one way for novice
cell-phone users to try out a service
and see how they use it before committing
to a contract. If you choose prepaid
service, however, your choice of handsets
may be limited to a few no-frills
models.
Contractual plans. Most plans today
offer a prescribed number of included
minutes for a flat
monthly fee. Choosing one involves
some thorny trade-offs. Depending
upon where you live, you may find
plans that range in cost from as little
as $10 (for a scant 10 minutes or
so of air time per month) up to as
much as $400 (providing a loquacious
4,000 minutes). Generally, the bigger
the "bucket" of minutes
you buy, the lower your per-minute
calling
cost will be—provided, of course,
that you use most or all of your monthly
allotment.
Extra time beyond that allowance is
charged at a rate
of anywhere from 25 to 65 cents per
minute. Supplemental minutes often
cost less in plans that come bundled
with a larger monthly allowance. AT&T's
Wireless $19.99 plan, for example,
includes 60 minutes of talk time per
month and charges 40 cents for each
additional minute. By contrast, the
company's $29.99 Regional Advantage
plan includes 120 minutes of air time,
with extra minutes at 30 cents apiece.
While the included minutes in most
calling
plans can be used anytime, day or
night, some carriers promote deals
that offer bundles of extra minutes
for less busy, off-peak evening and
weekend hours. For example, Sprint's
basic Free & Clear plan includes
20 minutes of unrestricted air time
for $19.99 a month. But for an additional
$10, subscribers can purchase 200
off-peak minutes. Provided you use
more than 25 of those minutes per
month, you would come out ahead buying
the supplemental package rather than
paying 39 cents for extra minutes
billed a la carte.
Calling-area
options. Further complicating the
choice of a plan is the size of the
area qualifying for calls to be charged
at the lowest per-minute rate.
The narrowest of these so-called home
areas may be a city and its surrounding
suburbs—usually a fine choice for
commuters wanting to stay in touch.
A regional plan, by contrast, offers
a more generous, multistate home-calling
area, though it may come with a higher
flat
monthly charge (or fewer minutes).
For example, in the Northeast, AT&T
offers a Regional Advantage plan and
a Digital Advantage plan for $29.99
per month. The regional plan lets
the subscriber talk for 120 minutes
per month throughout a multistate
territory extending from Virginia
to Maine. The Digital Advantage plan,
by contrast, includes 250 minutes
of talk time, but they can be used
only within a designated metropolitan
area. Beyond those boundaries, your
calls will be billed at a far-higher
roaming rate
of 60 cents per minute.
The top-tier plans offer buckets of
nationwide minutes at a flat
monthly rate,
with no restrictions on local, roaming,
or long-distance calls. You can expect
to pay a premium for this coast-to-coast
service; the least expensive AT&T
Digital One Rate
national calling
plan, for example, carries a flat
monthly rate
of $60 that includes 450 minutes of
nationwide calling.
Grumbles in the air Only 50
percent of the respondents called
themselves very or completely satisfied,
our scale's top marks; 12 percent
expressed some dissatisfaction with
their current carrier.
These plans also have their limitations.
Preferential national rates may apply
only in areas served by the carrier
you select. But some service providers,
such as Sprint PCS, that claim national
networks leave large swaths of the
map uncovered. Where coverage isn't
available, you may be billed for calls
at the higher out-of-network roaming
rate
charged by the company whose transmission
towers carry your signals—up to 69
cents a minute in the case of Sprint's
customers.
Costs add up fast
When you sign up for cellular service,
you enter something of a time warp.
That's because no matter which provider's
plan you choose, a "minute"
of cellular calling
time can be as short as a few seconds,
and your monthly allotment of "free"
minutes can quickly disappear into
a costly black hole. Here are some
of the ways that cell time differs
from conventional phone time:
How calls are billed. Unlike with
home telephone service, you pay not
only for calls you make but for incoming
calls. For outbound cellular calls,
billing begins when you press the
"send" button—not when the
party you called picks up. The clock
also keeps running for a few seconds
after you push "end" to
terminate your call. Because carriers
charge for a full minute even for
calls that are far briefer, those
additional seconds can consume still
more of your monthly minute quota.
Indeed, if you let an unanswered call
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