Worst of the Week: Unlimited buckets

Hello!
And welcome to our Thursday column, Worst of the Week. There’s a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCRWirelessNews.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way. We hope you enjoy it!
And without further ado:
Welcome to the Age of Unlimited. From this point on, there is only BU (Before Unlimited) and AU (After Unlimited). It’s a bold new world, where you can talk on your phone for ever and ever and ever. The dreaded Minute Bucket is a thing of the past, to be replaced with life, liberty and the pursuit of limitlessness.
So, in case you didn’t hear, three of the four top carriers will now offer unlimited calling for $100 a month. The whole thing went down Tuesday, when Verizon Wireless announced its unlimited plan in the morning. Then, just hours later, AT&T Mobility announced it will also offer virtually the exact same plan. And by the end of the day T-Mobile USA was on board too, except its $100 per month also will include messaging (of both the text and picture variety).
Although I don’t have personal insight into upper-level executive meetings at the various nationwide carriers, I can only imagine the utter chaos on Tuesday. I’m sure it went something like this:
–Verizon Wireless (early Tuesday morning): “You know what would be funny? Offering an unlimited calling plan for $100 per month, thereby accelerating the commoditization of voice. Wouldn’t that be awesome?”
–AT&T (after Verizon Wireless’ announcement): “Holy cow! Did you see that thing from Verizon? Yikes. You know what? We should do the same exact thing!”
–T-Mobile USA (after its afternoon nap): “What? What’s going on? Unlimited? For $100 a month? Sure, whatever. When’s dinner?”
But now the real question is: What’s Sprint Nextel going to do? As RCR Wireless News reported in February 2007, the nation’s No. 3 carrier began testing an unlimited calling, messaging and data plan for $120 in San Francisco. For $150, the carrier threw in wireless Internet access for computers. Sprint Nextel in May expanded that trial to a few more cities, but hasn’t made a peep about it since.
Yesterday, the word from Sprint Nextel was that the carrier has no plans to expand its unlimited service.
(An interesting side note: Astute reader Cliff pointed out that in 2002, AT&T Wireless Services Inc., which is now part of AT&T Mobility, introduced an unlimited calling plan for $100 a month to promote its new GSM/GPRS-based wireless network. The plan wasn’t nationwide, but included coverage anywhere in the country where the carrier had the new network in place.)
Nonetheless, all eyes are on Sprint Nextel. Will the carrier attempt to turn around its fading fortunes by undercutting rivals’ unlimited plans with a cheaper service, a move that could spark an industrywide price war? Price wars are my favorite kind of war, because instead of paying extra (for tanks and ammunition and such) I actually get to save money. Tremendous.
Anyway, what’s the point of all this? The point is that unlimited calling for $100 per month doesn’t really sound like that great of a deal. After all, I can get unlimited calling from a landline phone for like $25 a month (or cheaper, if you use an Internet calling service). And though I’m not always at home, I do keep all my stuff there, so it makes sense that I would also make and receive calls from home.
Further, most carriers offer a lot of minutes in “bucket” form. T-Mobile USA offers 1,500 minutes for $70 (and that does include unlimited nights and weekends). So, for example, this month I would have to make an average of 71 minutes of calls every weekday (during the day) to use up that whole bucket before the end of the month. And since I have no one to talk to, and no one wants to talk to me unless they have to, it would be very hard for me to use up all those minutes.
But, hey, maybe someone really important would be able to use an unlimited calling plan, someone who had a lot of talking to do. Like, maybe, American Idol Kelly Clarkson. Or that guy who made all the funny sound effects in the “Police Academy” movies. People like that.
OK! Enough of that.
Thanks for checking out this Worst of the Week column. And now, some extras:
–The Hollywood writers’ strike is finally over. Now the watchers’ strike can begin.
I welcome your comments. Please send me an e-mail at mdano@crain.com.