The wireless industry already has MyCircle, Inner Circle, Mobile-to-Anyone, and Sprint-to-Home. Add to that list “myFaves,” the new offer from T-Mobile USA Inc. that allows customers to make unlimited calls to a handful of wireless or wireline numbers.
The move by T-Mobile USA is the first time a national carrier has jumped on the bandwagon driven by SunCom Wireless Holdings Inc. and Alltel Corp., which let their subscribers choose up to 10 numbers for unrestricted calling. T-Mobile USA’s myFaves plans, which allows five numbers for unlimited calling, cost customers $10 per month more than its regular individual or family plans and features a special user interface to make it easy to call and message the five “faves.”
Single-line plans start at $40 per month for 300 anytime minutes and unlimited night and weekend minutes, and range as high as $140 per month for 5,000 anytime minutes. Family plans start at $70 per month for 700 minutes up to $140 monthly for 3,000 anytime minutes, and each line on the account can have its own “Fave 5.” T-Mobile USA allows users to change their favorite numbers once a month, and family members on the same plan must have each other listed as a favorite number in order to take advantage of unlimited calling; i.e in-network family calling is not included.
The user interface allows subscribers to use either icons or pictures to identify their “Fave 5,” and choose whether to call or send a text message, picture message or “voice note” to them. While the calls are free, messaging is extra—and Eddie Hold, vice president of wireless solutions for Current Analysis, noted that this could lead to customer confusion.
“There’s going to be an assumption that all of that’s included,” he said—and added that T-Mobile USA should consider adding those services to the myFaves plans as a way to encourage people to use more data services.
Who’s next?
Hold said that he did not expect to see larger carriers follow suit with myFaves-like plans, unless T-Mobile USA gains significant traction.
“When you’re a Cingular [Wireless L.L.C.] or a Verizon Wireless and you’ve got 50-plus million subscribers, your network kind of speaks for itself,” Hold said. “This is more a reaction by small carriers that are having to defend against mobile-to-mobile.”
Alltel recently increased the promotion of its MyCircle offer, which allows customers on plans of at least $60 per month to select up to 10 numbers for unlimited calling with no additional charges. T-Mobile USA and Alltel, Hold said, “are going to have an interesting marketing differentiation battle.” Alltel allows more numbers, he noted, but T-Mobile USA has lower-priced entry points for the feature.
Among other wireless companies which offer selective unlimited calling, SunCom has a Mobile-to-Anyone option for an extra charge of $15 per month that allows unrestricted calling for up to 10 wireless or wireline numbers. For an extra $5 per month, Sprint Nextel allows customers unlimited calling to their home residential number. Mobile virtual network operator Virgin Mobile USA L.L.C. too had a limited-time “Inner Circle” offer earlier this year that allowed its customers to choose three numbers for unlimited calling.
According to T-Mobile USA’s Web site, “most” of its customers make two-third of their calls to the same five numbers every month, based on call records for October 2005. The carrier also says it is in the process of building a usage analyzer that customers will be able to use after being a myFaves customer for at least a month, “to see who your real Fave 5 are.” Alltel Group President Scott Ford said recently that most MyCircle customers choose between three to five numbers for unlimited calling and that the offer had given Alltel a boost in postpaid subscribers.
T-Mobile USA requires a two-year contract for myFaves plans, and only a half-dozen handsets carry the interface: the Research In Motion Ltd. Blackberry Pearl; the Motorola Inc. Razr V3; the Nokia Corp. 6103; and the Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. Trace and t629. T-Mobile USA said that “virtually all new handsets available through T-Mobile USA will be MyFaves-enabled by the end of the year.”
T-Mobile USA’s new offering coincides with a new advertising catchphrase: “Stick Together,” that ditches former spokeswoman Catherine Zeta-Jones.
