Newsroom > TRACNotes TRACNotes Vol. 4  # 37 -- September 15, 2006 BECOME A TRAC MEMBER By joining TRAC, you will be joining thousands of consumers who want to learn and be involved with telecommunication issues that affect all of us. In addition, you will also receive free TRAC publications during your membership. GET UPDATES FROM TRAC Enter your information to sign up for alerts and other news from TRAC. TRAC State-by-State Local Phone Plan Comparison: California Average Wireless Bill Drop Slightly, Says Industry 24th Annual Parker Event a Success BUCKS WATCH TRAC State-by-State Local Phone Plan Comparison: California - (Note: This is the fifth in a series of articles comparing local telephone rates in each of the 50 states) Consumers in the Golden State have a large variety of local service plans available to them from the dominant Bell carriers in the state (AT&T and Verizon) as well as a number of competing local carriers and VoIP service providers. TRAC’s local phone comparison compared 24 local service plans from 10 carriers currently offering service in California. TRAC’s study found that consumers with existing broadband connections could save money by switching from traditional copper-wire based phone plans to a VoIP service plan. When the cost of a broadband connection was not factored in to the analysis, VoIP service plans ranged in cost from a low of $14.99-$24.99 per month. The least expensive wireline plan was AT&T’s Metro Plan at $16.78 per month followed by Cox Communications’ Residential Access Line Flat Rate Service at $24.42 per month. “Don’t automatically buy in to the marketing pressure to get a bundle of features and unlimited long distance unless you really need it,” said TRAC Research Associate John Breyault. “Many consumers could find that with a little comparison shopping and an honest evaluation of their communications needs, they could save $10-$20 or more per month on local telephone service, especially if they are comfortable enough with technology to give VoIP a try,” said Breyault. A note on methodology: TRAC’s local phone plan survey takes in to account the prices for monthly service, the federal subscriber line charge, and the two most popular calling options – Caller ID and call waiting. Note that MCI’s local phone service is only available bundled with long distance service, which skews the total cost comparison somewhat. TRAC’s survey covered plans being offered in the Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, and Needles metropolitan areas only. Plans surveyed may not be available in all areas of the state.

California Local Service Comparison Chart

WIRELESS WATCH

Average Wireless Bill Drop Slightly, Says Industry – The average monthly bill for a wireless user in the U.S. dropped slightly (.4%) over the past 12 months to $49.30, according to a new survey released this week by CTIA, the association which represents the wireless industry. The average monthly wireless bill has held fairly steady over the past 4 years between $49.52 (June 2005) and $49.30 (June 2006). This is $9.42 higher per month than the record low of $39.88 set in June 1998. At the same time, wireless industry revenues have never been higher, according to the industry. For the twelve-month period ending June 2006, the industry reported total revenues in excess of $118 billion. Based on CTIA’s reported average bill of $49.30 ($591.60 per year), and its estimate of more than 219 million subscribers using in excess of 850 billion minutes of usage per month, TRAC calculates that the average minute of wireless communication costs consumers roughly 15¢. Additional highlights from the report include the dramatic growth of revenue from data usage, which increased by 70% over the first half of 2005 to $6.5 billion, representing almost 11% of all wireless service revenues. Text-messaging continues to explode in popularity as well. Consumers sent more than 12.5 billion text messages in June, a 72% increase over the 7.3 billion messages sent in June 2005. For more information on CTIA’s latest Semi-Annual Wireless Industry Survey, click here.

TRAC AND YOU

24th Annual Parker Event a Success – More than 200 consumer, governmental, and industry leaders from across the country joined TRAC and the United Church of Christ’s Office of Communication, Inc. on Tuesday to honor the pioneering work of Dr. Everett C. Parker at the 24th Annual Everett C. Parker Ethics in Telecommunications Lecture and Awards Luncheon. Among the many distinguished attendees were current FCC Commissioners Michael Copps and Deborah Tate, as well as former FCC chairman Richard Wiley and former FCC commissioners Henry Rivera and Gloria Tristani. One of the highlights of the event was the moving introduction of McGannon Award recipient Randall Pinkston by Dr. Parker himself (92 years young!). In his remarks, TRAC Consumer Education Leadership Award recipient Ken McEldowney of Consumer Action discussed his organization’s multilingual educational projects promoting informed participation in the marketplace by people of color, low income and rural consumers, recent immigrants and seniors. Parker awardee Katherine Grincewich, who was introduced by Tristani, challenged the media to not lose its focus on the public good in the search for profit. Finally, Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman delivered an impassioned Parker Lecture. "Instead of a media that covers for power, we need a media that covers power," said Goodman. For more information on the event, please click here.

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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