LOS ANGELES-Family calling plans, highly touted by wireless providers, make sense for most families that don’t use their wireless phones as their primary communications device, according to a report by Econ One, an economic research and consulting firm.
Econ One noted that family plans providing modest amounts of minutes-150-300 minutes per month-tend to be better deals than individual plans. But at higher usage levels, 600 minutes per month and higher, family plans often aren’t such a good deal.
“A major selling point for many family plans is that family members can call each other for free within their home calling area,” noted Charles Mahla, senior economist for Econ One. “That can increase the actual savings of family plans, depending on how much they call each other.”
The Econ One report also looked at the average monthly price of wireless phone service during May for 25 major cities, showing an increase of 2 percent, to $42.32, compared with the average price in April.
San Francisco was the most expensive city for service with an average May price of $46.94, an increase of 1.3 percent compared with April. Phoenix was the least expensive city with an average monthly bill of $38.20 for May, an increase of 2.8 percent compared with the previous month.
Sacramento saw the largest increase in price from April to May, jumping 5.2 percent to $38.78 for wireless service, while New York had the largest decrease in average prices, dipping 4.8 percent to $42.01.
