TRACNotes

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2-1-1 Provides Important Referral Service For Those In Need - For consumers in need of many basic community services, navigating through the maze of information available can make the process of getting essential services daunting. Fortunately, the FCC has designated the phone number "2-1-1" to connect consumers in need of information and referral to community services in their area. Information on services such as Medicare, Medicaid, food banks, Children's Health Insurance Program, adult day care, drug and alcohol intervention, Meals on Wheels, Head Start, summer camps, and volunteer and job training opportunities, among others, may be available. 2-1-1 service is currently available to 83 million Americans in 25 states. For more information on finding 2-1-1 services in your area, click here⁽ⁱⁱⁱ⁾ or go to www.211.org.

WIRELESS WATCH

Association Plans Can Save Consumers Money - When signing up for new wireless service, consumers should be sure to ask their sales representative if they qualify for an association plan. Association plans are (usually) unadvertised plans that include discounts for thousands of organizations that a consumer might be associated with such as employers, alumni groups, or fraternal organizations. For example, AT&T is offering to waive the activation fee, include a free Nokia 6800 phone, and free shipping to new customers who are employees of Ford Motor Company, Morgan Stanley, or the U.S. Department of Justice, among others. Click here^(iv) to learn if your organization qualifies for the AT&T Wireless discounts. Sprint PCS also offers its PCS Nationwide Volume Program^(v) which gives discounts to employees of many companies. Regardless of the carrier chosen, new consumers should be sure to ask their sales representative if they qualify for an association plan discount when signing up for new service.

Wireless Churn Rate a Useful Tool to Gauge Quality of Service - The combined effects of lower prices and wireless local number portability rules are making quality of service (QoS) an increasingly important aspect in deciding which wireless carrier consumers choose. QoS includes such things as network quality, responsiveness of customer services, and billing accuracy, among other factors. For many consumers, unfortunately, quality of service can only be determined after service is begun, which often means entering in to a hard-to-break contract. One way that consumers can judge a company's QoS is to examine their churn rate; the rate at which a carrier's customers leave the company. In the fourth quarter of 2003, Nextel's 1.5% churn rate was the industry's lowest, followed by Verizon Wireless (1.7%), Sprint PCS (2.7%), Cingular Wireless (2.8%), T-Mobile (3.2%) and AT&T Wireless (3.3%).

INTERESTING LINKS

FCC Main Page - http://www.fcc.gov

FCC Complaint Form - http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/cib/fcc475.cfm

List of State Regulatory Commissions - http://www.naruc.org/resources/state.shtml

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©2004 Telecommunications Research and Action Center. TRAC grants unlimited rights to reproduce TRACNotes or any information contained in it provided attribution is given as follows: "Source:Telecommunications Research and Action Center. http://www.trac.org"

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