Verizon Wireless
Verizon Wireless this week launched its Smart Rewards program, which allows customers to accumulate “rewards in exchange for points customers earn for their everyday activities and interactions with Verizon Wireless.”
The program, which will be available beginning July 24, is open to all postpaid accounts, with customers signing up for the program gifted 10,000 points. Customers can then accumulate more points for such activities as signing in to the My Verizon online account management tool, paying their monthly bill and “other transactions like using the Verizon Trade In program or choosing paperless billing.”
In exchange for those points, customers will be provided with discounts on merchandise from more than 200 “well-known brands,” discounts on local shopping and dining redeemable directly from a customer’s wireless device, and travel discounts at more than 26,000 hotels.
The carrier adds that customers “may be required” to enroll in its controversial Verizon Selects program, which the carrier announced in late 2012. That program allows the carrier to “use location, Web browsing and mobile application usage data, as well as other information including customer demographic and interest data, to create specific insights.” Verizon said it then uses this information to either directly market offers to customers or offers the data to third-party vendors for marketing purposes.
SK Telecom
SK Telecom continues to hype its “5G” progress, announcing this week that along with Ericsson it had demonstrated “elastic cell” technology.
The carrier said the technology “enables multiple cells near the handset to cooperate for every transmission thereby creating a user-centric environment, compared to the current cell-centric one where each handset communicates with only one specific cell.” The result is a reported smoother data connection as the cells are working together to ensure quality hand offs between sites.
The companies added that the demonstration showed up to a 50% increase in data transfer rates at the cell boundary compared with existing LTE technology, with SK Telecom saying it plans to add the feature to its commercial network in 2016.
Sprint
Sprint’s Assurance Wireless offering, which provides government-subsidized services, said it was launching an update to its plans in California that will include free unlimited calling and texting.
The plan, dubbed the California Freedom Plan, will replace the previously offered plan that included 250 calling minutes and 250 text messages. Current Assurance Wireless customers in California will be automatically migrated to the new plan unless they choose to stay on the legacy offering. The plan is supported by the California Lifeline and federal Lifeline Assistance programs.
Assurance Wireless last month announced plans to offer free unlimited text messaging to new customers across 36 states to go along with the standard 250 calling minutes.
Consumer Cellular
Consumer Cellular, which targets mature mobile users, said it had reached 1.5 million subscribers to its service offering. The carrier said that it markets its offering to “adults over 50 who do not wish to be confined by long-term contracts or the rigidity of typical pre- and postpaid options.”
The carrier noted that it has grown its customer base from 30,000 subscribers in 2005 to the 1.5 million customer mark this year, along with an increase in revenues from $17 million to $354 million over the same period. In marking the customer milestone, Consumer Cellular said it plans to donate $150,000 to three charities: the American Cancer Society, St. Jude’s Children Research Hospital and the Wounded Warrior Project.
Starhome Mach Report
A new report from inter-carrier clearing services provider Starhome Mach, claims that data roaming regulations introduced by the European Union have not had the impact on roaming traffic as expected. The report, which taps into Starhome Mach’s real-time analytics and business management service, found that “more than half of subscribers have yet to access a single kilobyte of data while roaming.”
“Though data roaming is on the rise, substantial revenue opportunities still abound,” explained Guy Reiffer, VP of marketing and partnerships at Starhome Mach. “As prices drop due to legislation and competition, operators can proactively respond by tapping into this significant silent roamer segment with compelling incentives that can change ingrained behavior.”
The report found that 68% of global roamers have yet to tap into wireless roaming services; 58% of EU roamers have yet to try data roaming; the total number of data roamers increased just 10% over the past year, while voice roamers increased only 5%; and 56% of consumers use voice services when roaming.
The EU earlier this year introduced rules to cut data rates for users traveling to other EU countries by more than 50%. The data roaming cap dropped from 61 cents to 27 cents per megabyte. The cap on making calls while roaming decreased 21% from 33 cents to 26 cents per minute. These charges are all before value-added tax that can tack on as much as 25%.
Additional carrier news can be found on the RCR Wireless News “Carriers” page.
