BUCKS WATCH
TRAC State-by-State Local Phone Plan Comparison: Indiana – ((Note: This is the fourteenth in a series of articles comparing local telephone rates in each of the 50 states) Indiana residents served by smaller local carriers may have an advantage over consumers served by AT&T in the more urban areas of the state when it comes to local phone service. When the costs of monthly service, the federal subscriber line charge, and the two most popular calling features – Caller ID and Call Waiting – are factored in, smaller carriers like New Paris Telephone Company beat AT&T on the monthly cost of basic telephone service. In addition, VoIP offerings from companies like Vonage and Packet8 continue to beat their wireline rivals on price for consumers with pre-existing broadband connections. That said TRAC’s survey found that for consumers in AT&T service areas, the company’s basic “Primary Phone Line” with a la carte Caller ID and Call Waiting is the cheapest option for unlimited local calling. While Comcast is making an aggressive push to sign up subscribers to its “triple play” of phone, Internet, and cable television, its lowest priced local phone service, the Unlimited Digital Voice plan, requires a subscription to Comcast cable TV and Internet to qualify for the $39.95 rate. While this rate does include unlimited nationwide long distance calling as well, it may not be the best option for consumers who just want a local calling plan (who use their cell phones for long distance calls, for example). Other competitive local carriers such as MCI also offer attractively-priced local and long distance bundles, but again, they are not a better deal than AT&T’s lowest priced plan callers who want local service only.
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 some local phone service plans are only offered as a bundle with long distance service, which skews the total cost comparison somewhat. TRAC’s survey covered plans being offered in a variety of local service areas. Plans surveyed may not be available in every area of the state.
| TRAC Local Phone Plan Comparison: Indiana |
| Carrier |
Plan |
Monthly Service Fee |
Caller ID |
Call Waiting |
Federal Subscriber Line Charge |
Broadband Fee* |
Total |
| AT&T |
Primary Phone Line |
$11.54 |
$9.95 |
$4.13 |
$5.90 |
N/A |
$31.49 |
| AT&T |
Call Plan Unlimited - 2 Features Enhanced |
$28.00 |
Included |
$5.90 |
N/A |
$33.90 |
| Bellerud Communications |
Residential Plan |
$36.75 |
Included |
$6.50 |
N/A |
$43.25 |
| Cleartel Communications |
Cleartel Simple |
$19.95 |
$4.00 |
$4.00 |
$6.50 |
N/A |
$34.45 |
| CMC Telecom |
Clearstream Combo |
$29.95 |
Included |
$2.00 |
N/A |
$31.95 |
| Comcast |
Comcast Digital Voice (with bundled cable TV AND Internet) |
$39.95 |
Included |
N/A |
$39.45 |
$79.40 |
| Comcast |
Comcast Digital Voicce (with bundled cable TV OR Internet) |
$44.95 |
Included |
N/A |
$39.45 |
$84.40 |
| Comcast |
Comcast Digital Voice (without bundled cable TV or Internet) |
$54.95 |
Included |
N/A |
N/A |
$54.95 |
| First Communications |
FirstLine Connect |
$25.95 |
Included |
$6.50 |
N/A |
$32.45 |
| MCI |
Neighborhood Connect 200 |
$29.99 |
Included |
$6.50 |
N/A |
$36.49 |
| MCI |
Neightborhood Connect 500 |
$39.99 |
Included |
$6.50 |
N/A |
$46.49 |
| MCI |
Neighborhood Connect Unlimited |
$49.99 |
Included |
$6.50 |
N/A |
$56.49 |
| New Paris Telephone Company |
Residential Line |
$16.67 |
$3.00 |
$2.00 |
$6.50 |
N/A |
$28.17 |
| Packet8 |
Freedom Unlimited |
$19.99 |
Included |
N/A |
$39.45 |
$59.44 |
| Packet8 |
Freedom Unlimited (without broadband fee) |
$19.99 |
Included |
N/A |
N/A |
$19.99 |
| TDS |
Basic Phone Line |
$24.34 |
$6.50 |
$3.00 |
$6.50 |
N/A |
$40.34 |
| Trinsic |
Trinsic Unlimited |
$58.68 |
Included |
$6.50 |
N/A |
$65.18 |
| Verizon |
Flat Rate Service |
$17.56 |
$3.50 |
$8.20 |
$7.00 |
N/A |
$36.26 |
| Verizon |
Verizon Local Package |
$28.95 |
Included |
$7.00 |
N/A |
$35.95 |
| Vonage |
Premium Unlimited Plan |
$24.99 |
Included |
N/A |
$39.45 |
$64.44 |
| Vonage |
Residential Basic 500 Minutes Plan |
$14.99 |
Included |
N/A |
$39.45 |
$54.44 |
| Vonage |
Premium Unlimited Plan
(without broadband fee) |
$24.99 |
Included |
N/A |
N/A |
$24.99 |
| Vonage |
Residential Basic 500 Minutes Plan
(without broadband fee) |
$14.99 |
Included |
N/A |
N/A |
$14.99 |
| West Point Telephone Company |
Residential Line |
$17.50 |
$4.95 |
$3.00 |
$6.50 |
N/A |
$31.95 |
* Average of nationwide cable modem prices as defined by Kagan Research - 7/6/06.
WIRELESS WATCH
New Free Services Can Make Cell Phone Numbers Even More Private - According to the FCC, there are now more cell phone lines in use than land lines. While the statistic may seem strange, it makes sense after some thought. In years past, everyone in a household tended to share the same local phone line for all their calls. In some cases, consumers purchased extra lines for a fax machine, dial-up Internet, or a home business. These days, many families have separate cell phones for each member of the family, each with its own phone number. As cell phones increasingly become virtually attached to our bodies, giving out a cell phone number has become an important decision since users can then be contacted virtually everywhere, often by people one might not want to talk to. To address this need for cell phone privacy, a number of web sites have sprung up which offer “temporary” phone numbers. Instead of giving out their personal cell phone numbers, users of the service give out these temporary numbers to potential contacts. Calls to these “temporary” numbers are sent directly to voice mail, which can then be checked and screened by the call recipient later. Please see the table below for details on these different services.
| Free "Temporary" Number Services |
| Service |
Cost |
Description |
Website |
| jConnect |
Free for basic voicemail and incoming faxes. |
jConnect does not offer customizable area code, so callers may incur long distance charges to call the voicemail number. In addition to voicemails, jConnect users can also receive faxes at their number which are then delivered as attachments via e-mail. Additional premium services are available for a fee. |
http://www.j2.com |
| K7 |
Free for basic voicemail and incoming faxes. |
Numbers in the 206 (Seattle) area code are automatically assigned to each account. Users can then receive voicemail and incoming faxes at this number. Faxes and voicemails are delivered via e-mail or on the Web at the K7 website. Voicemail boxes on the K7 website will hold up to 20 messages of up to five minutes in length (2 MB in size for faxes) for up to 7 days. Voicemails and faxes delivered by e-mail are limited only by the size your ISP allows. |
http://www.k7.net |
| PrivatePhone |
Free for basic voicemail |
Users can get a free phone number in virtually any area code. Calls to that number get a personalized voice mail that subscribers can then check for free and return at their leisure. Each account gets one voicemail box, though users can get additional voicemail boxes by creating additional accounts. Up to 10,000 messages can be stored in a single mailbox. Users can answer calls to the PrivatePhone number or have messages forwarded to another number for a fee. |
http://privatephone.com/ |
| SimpleVoiceBox |
Free for basic voicemail |
SimpleVoiceBox users sign up on the service's website and are assigned a private phone number. This phone number will likely not be in a local area code, unfortunately. Each voicemail box can hold up to 30 messages of up to an hour in length each. Conference calling, toll-free numbers, and voice trees can be set up for an additional fee. |
http://www.simplevoicebox.com |
Verizon Wireless, Alltel, T-Mobile Score Well in Consumer Reports Survey - The results of Consumer Reports’ cell phone survey are in and Verizon Wireless topped the rankings in most of the 20 metropolitan areas surveyed. Following a trend found in other industry surveys, T-Mobile continues to be a strong competitor for Verizon Wireless in customer satisfaction. Interestingly, Alltel also scored well, which is encouraging to see for consumers who want more alternatives than the four largest wireless carriers (Cingular, Sprint/Nextel, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless). Consumer Reports also strongly disputes the Cingular ads that claim their network has the least dropped calls of any carrier. The survey’s findings also echo other industry surveys that show that wireless service overall scores low on customer satisfaction rankings versus other services. Consumer Reports’ survey found that cellular carriers scored only 66 on a scale of 0 to 100 for overall satisfaction, which puts it on par with other perennial low-scorers such as cable TV and computer tech support. Call quality continues to be the most important determining factor in the decision to leave a carrier, noted the report. 54 percent of survey respondents who switched carriers during the past three years attributed their decision to poor phone service, including dropped calls and no service at home. By contrast, 33 percent were motivated to switch by the promise of a better price. To read more about this survey, click here. Consumers who are considering switching their wireless service or starting up a new line of service should be sure to pick up the January 2007 issue of Consumer Reports which includes detailed rankings of wireless service providers in each of the 20 metropolitan areas surveyed.
TRAC IN THE NEWS
VoIP Customer Service Is a Concern, Says TRAC - The explosive growth of residential VoIP services may be outstripping the VoIP companies’ ability to keep up with the growing number of customer service complaints, noted TRAC in a recent edition of Newsday. "The issue of customer service is one that we're concerned about because VoIP services are definitely growing," TRAC Research Associate John Breyault was quoted as saying. The Newsday article described difficulties that a Long Island, New York woman had in getting her phone number transferred from Vonage to Verizon, eventually losing the number altogether. Consumers who are switching their home phone service to another carrier should always be sure to initiate service with the new carrier BEFORE cancelling service with the old carrier. It is incumbent on the new carrier to initiate a number porting request with the old carrier so that the subscriber’s number does not get placed back in the number “pool” from which phone numbers are drawn for new accounts. To read the full article, 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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