TRAC AND YOU
Readers Write In With AT&T
Wireless-Cingular Merger Experiences - We received
quite a few responses to our invitation last week to send in
your stories about consumer experiences related to the
Cingular-AT&T Wireless merger. According to the e-mails we
received, many users continue to experience difficulties with
changing their service, replacing lost or damaged phones, and
getting a clear signal. Noted one reader who splits his time
between New York and Florida:
"The move from AT&T Wireless
to Cingular was not painless. We live in both Florida and New
York. In April 2005 we went to a Cingular store in West Palm
Beach, Florida to make [a] phone and plan change. The Cingular
rep said he could not make the change since our AT&T plan
was with a New York number. Only a New York Cingular store
could make the upgrade (plan and GSM switch). So much for a
'national' company. Also, Florida and New York had different
'no charge' GSM Nokia phones in their [nationwide] plan. To get
the GSM replacement for our AT&T Wireless phone, which we
loved, would have been free in Florida, but we had to pay a fee
in New York. Needless to say, Cingular has greatly disappointed
us but we will stay with them until our anniversary and then
look to switch to another carrier."
Our story about replacing damaged AT&T Wireless phones
inspired another reader to share with us his phone replacement
story (with a happy ending!):
"We, too, had a damaged AT&T
handset. Cingular customer service and their stores told us
that they had none for sale. They said we could migrate to a
better plan for less, but that we had to pay list prices for
the new phones (we had to buy two for obvious reasons).
[Alternatively,] if we waited until three months before our
contract was up (seven months away), we could migrate and pay
the discounted prices for the new handsets. No one, including
the manufacturer of our damaged NEC phones (we had two) could
or would supply us or a third party service with the unlock
code. According to Cingular, we either had to do without one
phone for the seven months and stay on the inferior plan, or
pay list prices for new phones in order to migrate to Cingular.
We eventually found a third party service agent who contacted
his sales representative. The rep arranged for us to migrate to
a better plan than AT&T for only an $18 fee for each phone,
and we paid significantly less for the phones than Cingular's
discounted prices. One phone was the top-of-the-line Motorola
V3 and the other was a Motorola V180. And are we happy this
happened. Now that we are with Cingular, we have had no dropped
calls and what were dead zones before are now alive. Subsequent
dealings with Cingular have been much better than any dealings
we ever had with AT&T. We are staying with Cingular and
will deal only with our new friend, the third party
service."
Finally another reader also ran into the same "paying more
for fewer minutes" issue we described last week:
"I had an AT&T plan prior to
the merger paying $29.95 per month. For that price I got a
total of 750 any time minutes plus unlimited nights and
weekends. Originally I got 400 any time minutes for the $29.95
but AT&T gave me additional minutes at renewal times as an
incentive to keep me as a customer. My dealing with AT&T
has been A plus. After the merger, Cingular honored the
arrangement I had with AT&T; however they offered me an
upgraded phone if I agreed to pay $39.95 for 600 any time
minutes and unlimited nights and weekends. I said no thanks. It
would have been nice to get the upgraded phone, but I would be
paying $10.00 more and getting 150 fewer minutes. Hopefully my
AT&T phone continues to work and I don't lose it, because I
don't want to experience the problem you mentioned in your most
recent article."
WIRELESS WATCH
Wireless Carriers Appealing to Different
Demographics, Study Says - A new study released this
week by mobile usage measurement firm M:Metrics finds that
mobile phone subscribers tend to fall into specific demographic
market niches according to carrier. For example, young men who
download games to their phones are more than twice as likely to
be a Sprint PCS subscriber than any other carrier, noted the
study. M:Metrics' study found that Sprint PCS and T-Mobile tend
to attract younger subscribers who are avid consumers of mobile
content such as games, ringtones, and text messaging. At the
other end of the age spectrum, prepaid wireless carrier
TracFone had almost twice the average number of subscribers 65
years old and above, who own the phones mostly for emergency
use only. The bulk of Nextel's subscribers are 35-45 year old
males who are more likely than any other carrier to have their
wireless bill paid for by their employers. Additionally, Nextel
has the highest percentage of users whose household annual
income surpasses $100,000 per year. M:Mobile also found that
Virgin mobile's exclusive content agreements with youth-focused
brands like MTV have made the prepaid carrier a hit among
teens. According to M:Metrics data, with almost 17 percent of
its subscriber base being comprised of 13 to 17-year-olds,
Virgin has more than twice as many of this age group than
average. Interestingly, subscribers to mass-market carriers
Verizon Wireless and Cingular are much less likely to utilize
mobile content than the average user. To read more about this
study,
click here. What does this mean for consumers? Generally,
carriers try to price their services to match the market they
are aiming for. T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile (which runs on
T-Mobile's network) offer the best text messaging rates among
major carriers and are very competitive on prices for
ringtones, games, and other downloadable content. (For more
information on text messaging rates, check out the January 14
issue of TRACNotes by clicking here.)
Verizon Wireless and Cingular are both aiming for the mass
market and so offer a number of attractive family plans.
Nextel's "push-to-talk" service is specifically designed with
the mobile professional in mind, and thus has a more robust
network for this particular application. In the end, it comes
down to what services you need or want and what you are willing
to pay for them. Prospective customers should evaluate their
calling patterns and come up with a clear picture of what they
will need in the way of service before beginning shopping. The
worst possible scenario for consumers is entering the buying
process uninformed and getting stuck with a phone or contract
that doesn't meet your needs.
BUCKS WATCH
TRAC Releases New Texas Bundled Plan
Comparison Chart - Texas consumers can save money on
their telephone bills by carefully weighing the price they pay
for phone service against the convenience of a single phone
bill, according to a new survey of bundled local and long
distance plans released this week by TRAC. Bundled local and
long distance calling packages are an increasingly popular
choice for consumers hoping to eliminate the extra bills that
usually come with using two different carriers for local and
long distance telephone service. Additionally, telephone
companies are eager to offer these packages to their customers
since users of bundles tend to be less likely to switch to
another carrier. However, consumers in Texas should be sure to
consider all of the costs involved before signing up for a
bundled plan. In particular, long distance usage played the
largest role in determining what plans ranked best in the
survey. TRAC's survey found that for Texas consumers looking
for an "all you can eat" unlimited residential local and long
distance bundled plan, SBC's Personal Choice with National
Connections plan was the least expensive overall at an
estimated $41.95 per month. MCI's Neighborhood Unlimited and
AT&T's One Rate USA plans were the two most expensive
unlimited plans at an estimated monthly cost of $62.07 and
$57.13, respectively. The study found that for low and
medium-volume long-distance users in Texas (30 and 100 minutes
per month, respectively), SBC's Personal Choice with JustCall
60 plan was the best value, costing an estimated $29.95 and
$32.75 per month per calling basket. So-called "power users"
who make 500 minutes or more of long distance calls per month
should consider an unlimited plan, since even the cheapest
bundled plans with large baskets of minutes -- SBC's Personal
Choice with JustCall 200 and MCI's Neighborhood Connect 500
plans (estimated costs of $55.95 and $56.95 per month,
respectively) -- were more expensive than most of the unlimited
bundles surveyed. To read more about TRAC's new Texas bundled
plan survey,
click here. To purchase a copy of the survey visit
http://www.trac.org/charts/ or send $2.00 check or money order
to:
TRAC
P.O. Box 27279
Washington, D.C. 20005
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
What do you think? Got a tip you want to share?
Nominate your "Scam of the Week" and your "Tip of the Week" -
If we select your submission, we'll give you a one-year free
membership in TRAC and acknowledge your contribution by name in
TRACNotes.
Send an e-mail to trac@trac.org to submit your
ideas!
