BUCKS WATCH
TRAC Surveys Blackberry and Mobile E-mail Rates - One of the most popular new features being offered by wireless carriers over the past two years has been mobile e-mailing devices. Devices such as RIM’s Blackberry, T-Mobile’s Sidekick, and PalmOne’s Treo (just to name a few) are part of a new generation of so-called “smartphones.” These devices combine cellular phones with e-mail (and increasingly instant messaging and Web ) connectivity to create a product that more and more business people and many others can’t live without. While this functionality is great, it doesn’t come cheap. Blackberry and other mobile data plans generally cost between $20 and $30 per month for limited data plans (5-10 MB per month on average) up to $50 or more per month for unlimited plans. Additionally, airtime charges apply to some plans and voice calls over Blackberry devices or PDAs are often charged an additional per-minute fee of as much as 25¢ per minute. (Note: Rates surveyed were for service on QWERTY-keyboard enabled devices such as Blackberries and Palm or Windows-based PDAs. Mobile e-mail plans for traditional wireless phones were not surveyed) See below to find out the hard truth for the major U.S. wireless carriers:
- Cingular - RIM Blackberry users can access e-mail from 10 ISP accounts or a corporate e-mail account for $39.99 per month for up to 4MB of data (1¢ per KB of data afterwards). The Blackberry Unlimited Plan costs $49.99 per month for (you guessed it) unlimited Blackberry use. Airtime charges apply to both plans and overage minutes cost 40¢ per minute. Blackberry Data plans require a 2 year contract. Cingular also currently offers four Data Connect plans to connect Cingular Wireless PDAs to corporate e-mail and Intranets with prices ranging from $19.99 per month for 5 MB of included data (0.8¢ per KB after) to $44.99 per month for unlimited data.
- Nextel - Blackberry users have a choice of the 3MB Blackberry Email and Web Plan for $39.99 per month or the Unlimited Blackberry Email and Web Plan for $49.99 per month. Customers who also subscribe to an optional Nextel voice plan save $5 per month off the cost of Blackberry service.
- SprintPCS - Subscribers to Sprint PCS’s Business Connection service can connect to their office Outlook or Lotus Notes e-mail with a Palm Powered and Windows-enabled Sprint PCS Vision Smart Device or compatible PDA. The Business Connection Personal Edition is a bargain at $20 per month. Interested consumers should check with an account representative about the data limits specific to their accounts.
- T-Mobile - Users who do not need access to corporate e-mail accounts can use T-Mobile’s Sidekick device for a $29.99 monthly fee, which includes unlimited data use. Voice calls on the Sidekick devices not associated with a separate voice plan are charged 20¢ per minute. T-Mobile also offers unlimited usage Blackberry service plans ranging from the $29.99 per month BlackBerry Unlimited plan (voice calls charged an additional 20¢ per minute) to the $79.99 per month Blackberry Minutes & Mail Ultra plan which includes a 1500 minute per month voice plan.
- Verizon Wireless - Blackberry service subscribers with Verizon have the choice of two plans; a $29.99 per month 10MB plan (0.8¢ per KB after 10MB) or a $49.99 per month unlimited plan. Voice calls are charged an additional 25¢ per minute.
AT&T and MCI Raising International Mobile Termination Fees July 1 - When calling friends and family overseas, it pays to know whether you are calling a landline phone or a wireless phone. Why is this? In addition to the regular international rates, subscribers to most long distance carriers pay an additional per-minute fee called the international mobile termination (IMT) rate for calls to wireless devices (including cell phones and pagers) overseas. For AT&T and MCI subscribers, that fee is about to go up for calls to a number of countries. Starting in July, AT&T will be raising the IMT rate for twelve countries. Some popular calling destinations for which AT&T subscribers will see the fee increase include the Dominican Republic (1¢ increase), Ecuador (6¢ increase), Israel (2¢ increase), and Jamaica (7¢ increase).
For more information on these AT&T changes, click herei . Also effective July 1, MCI will be raising the IMT rate for calls to 39 countries and introducing the fee in 10 new countries. Notable countries that this increase will affect include Colombia (new 3¢ fee), Ecuador (new 7¢ fee), El Salvador (1¢ increase), Guatemala (2¢ increase), Iraq (new 7¢ fee), Turkey (2¢ increase), United Kingdom (1¢ increase), and Vietnam (new 1¢ fee). For more information on these MCI fee changes, click hereii . The increase in countries like Israel and the United Kingdom is especially relevant since the penetration of cell phones there, and the number of people whose only phone is a mobile phone, is much higher than in the U.S. as a recent article notesiii.
The cost of the IMT rate can be calculated by adding the basic per-minute rate charged by your long distance carrier for calls to a mobile device in a certain country to the IMT rate for that country. For example, calls to France on AT&T’s One Rate International plan are 32¢ per minute. Effective July 1, AT&T’s IMT rate to France will be 23¢. Therefore, calls to mobile devices in France for AT&T One Rate International plan subscribers will be 55¢ per minute (32¢ basic rate plus 23¢ IMT rate). Consumers making frequent calls to overseas wireless phones should take carriers’ IMT rates into account when comparing international calling plans in order to get a better picture of which plans will save you money at the end of the month.
TRAC IN THE NEWS
Keep An Eye on Text Messaging Costs, Says TRAC - TRAC was quoted this week in a story in the Asbury Park (NJ) Press on the true costs of text messaging. For those without messaging as part of a wireless plan, a text message can cost 10 cents to send and receive, noted TRAC. "The No. 1 thing to think about is just that it is not a free service," said TRAC Research Associate John Breyault. "You are paying for every text message that goes out, every one that comes in whether you are paying per message or (in) the block of messages you get each month." TRAC recommends that users figure out how many messages they will send and receive before deciding on a package. "You need to make sure that you are using enough text messages to make it worth your while, otherwise you are paying for a service that you are not using and that is just wasting money," Breyault said. To read the full article, click hereiv. To read our January 14 survey of wireless text messaging rates, click herev.
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/displaycommon.cfm?an=15
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©2005 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"
Endnotes
