Roaming charges and long-distance fees increasingly are becoming a thing of the past as one-rate
plans like the one AT&T Wireless Services Inc. offers take over the domestic wireless market.
Several carriers last
week announced new pricing plans that nix roaming and long-distance fees or expand local calling areas, including
large players like GTE Wireless and regional players like CellularOne in California and Cellular South, which serves
Mississippi.
AT&T Wireless is credited with changing the shape of the industry when last spring it introduced its
Digital One Rate plan, which eliminated roaming and long-distance charges nationwide and offered per-minute charges
nearing 10 cents on its largest buckets.
Many analysts have predicted that major wireless players will have to offer
one-rate plans that address roaming and long-distance charges in order to remain competitive, and carriers appear to
understand that trend as well.
The push for one-rate plans accelerated when Bell Atlantic Mobile and Sprint PCS
joined in. In addition, Omnipoint Communications Inc. changed its plans to allow for buckets of minute. each
introduced their version of one-rate plans last fall to compete with AT&T’s offer. In November, RCR reported Nextel
Communications Inc. was testing nationwide pricing plans similar to the high-end one-rate plans offered by other
nationwide mobile carriers.
Now at least four other carriers have thrown their hat into the one-rate pricing ring with
national, regional or local one-rate pricing plans that promote adoption of digital technology.
GTE’s new plans
allow carriers to add a monthly fee of as little as $15 to any of its HomeChoice Plans in order to use their included
minutes throughout either the Western or Eastern United States without paying roaming charges. GTE also introduced
its AmericaChoice plan, which eliminates all roaming and domestic long-distance charges anywhere in the United
States and includes bundles of 650 minutes for $95, 1,100 minutes for $125 and 1,500 minutes for $155.
The
Cellular One partnership of AirTouch Communications Inc. and AT&T Wireless in San Francisco, eliminated roaming
and intrastate long-distance charges throughout California. The company introduced two plans-the California 250,
which gives customers 250 minutes a month for $50 with additional California minutes billed at 30 cents, and the
California 500 plan, which provides 500 minutes for $80 with additional minutes billed at 25 cents.
Cellular South’s
Digital Mississippi plans eliminate all roaming and long-distance charges within Mississippi. Calling packages start as
low as $13 for 20 minutes.
Southwestern Bell Wireless introduced its “Talk Across Texas” cellular
calling plans, which allow customers to place calls anywhere in Texas without roaming or long-distance charges. The
company is offering six monthly plans ranging from $25 for 60 anytime home minutes and 30 statewide minutes, to
$150 for 1,700 anytime home minutes and 180 statewide minutes. Users can expand their calling area from the state to
the nation for an additional $10 per month.
AT&T last week introduced a bundled service offering called Personal
Network that combines wireless and wireline calls billed at the same rate and presented on a single bill. The offer costs
customers $30 per month and includes a 10 cent per-minute rate for all local and domestic long-distance digital
wireless calls made from within a caller’s wireless home area.
