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AT&T, T-Mobile match VZW on flat rate, sort of
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AT&T and T-Mobile USA have joined Verizon Wireless by kicking the bucket. Hours after Verizon Wireless made its move to offer a flat rate voice plan, subscribers to AT&T and T-Mobile USA learned that they too could purchase a $99.99-a-month flat rate plan for unlimited voice calls. T-Mobile USA, however, took the plan one step further and included unlimited text and instant messaging.
While Sprint has yet to offer an unlimited voice plan at or below the other three carriers' pricetags, the carrier's CEO Dan Hesse did indicate to USA Today last week that Sprint may offer an unlimited flat rate plan soon in a move to shake up the industry. The threat of doing so was enough. Now the industry waits to see whether Sprint will undercut the other three carriers' $100 pricetag in an attempt to recoup subscribers lost over the past year.
Cellular South joined the press release joust by highlighting its own unlimited plan. The release claims that Cellular South's unlimited plan is more competitively priced than other carriers at a flat monthly rate of $79.99 for phones and $99.99 for smartphones.
For more on the flat-rate trend:
- read this article from the WSJ (sub. req.)
Comments
Posted by Consiliare | February 20, 2008 - 2:18pm
When will the nonsense end? seems like everyday there's a new offering from the carriers www.consiliare.com
Posted by Anonymous | February 20, 2008 - 6:11pm
WOW !! It is really depressing to see how desperate you guys are to shine up a otherwise dull story.
I am a customer of Verizon and if I switched over to this underwhelming offer of 99.95 a line it would actually make my bill triple in price as I have all together a total of 8 phones on two different family plans.
I suggest you do some more research and try to print the facts next time.
The facts are this flat rate plan doesn't come close to comparing to what MetroPCS has to offer in terms of a flat rate plan. I have done the research and unless you use at 6000 minutes a month this plan isn't comparable to just purchasing one of the already existing price plans and adding additional phones to share the minutes since the cost for an additional phone is far below the $99.95 rate
I understand you need to sell ads so maybe you had another motivation to paint Verizon in such an positive light. I don't know, but what I do know is this new price plan is no bargain like you make it out to be.
It is just more New Yorker (NYC being Verizon HQ) Madison Avenue Marketing Hype (lies) as there is little value to those of use who don't use in excess of 6000 day time minutes. Most companies have unlimited weekend and late night plans for again a fraction of what this would cost.
Catch your breath next time before just reprinting Verizon PR Press Release, and think about it for a minute and ask yourself is this really news worthy ?
Thank you.
Posted by Sue Marek | February 20, 2008 - 6:37pm
I strongly disagree with you. FierceWireless is an business-to-business publication that reports on developments in the wireless industry. Our primary readers are business executives in the wireless industry. We aren't a consumer publication and we aren't in the business of recommending rate plans.ÂÂ
Yes, MetroPCS and Leap Wireless do have unlimited rate plans that range in price between $30 and $50 per month. But as we reported yesterday, Leap and MetroPCS do not have the same nationwide coverage as Verizon, AT&T or T-Mobile and if you are a MetroPCS customer and you roam on another operator's network you are charged a roaming fee.
Sue
Posted by Carmelo Lisciotto | March 18, 2008 - 9:03am
Interesting price wars.
Carmelo Lisciotto
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