Todd Allcock

"SMS" <scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote in message
news:47acdcb0$0$84203$742ec2ed@news.sonic.net...
>>
>>> I.e., a $40 plan on the top five carriers, a $60 plan on the top five
>>> carriers, 700 minute family plans, etc. Verizon is not "horribly
>> overpriced,"
>>> they are right about in line with the other carriers.
>>
>>
>> Until you want data, that is!
>
> Right, but you said that it was horribly priced in terms of both voice and
> data.

"Horribly overpriced" was probably an exaggeration on voice, perhaps, but
they're certainly on the high side of "competitive" (a word generally used
by businesses to mean "we're only a LITTLE more expensive than our
competition!) ;-)

> It's not overpriced at all in terms of voice.

Sure it is- as I already mentioned, they lack the "gimmicks" other carriers
use to allow customers to get away with smaller plans- for someone who's
usage varies a bit, rollover lets him choose a plan representing his
_average_ usage, where as a Verizon customer, he'd have to take a plan that
represented his _upper end_ of usage to avoid overage fees. That can be
very significant.

Sprint offers 7pm nights at no extra charge, probably reducing significantly
the number of daytime minutes used vs. Verizon's 9pm, and Sprint's 50 extra
minutes for $5 add-ons would also help alleviate overages in the months
they're needed.

T-Mobile simply offers a ton of extra minutes (currently 1000 @ $40 vs. the
others' 450) and "MyFaves" plans that make calls to any 5 numbers free (like
Alltel's 10-number circle.) T-Mobile claims that 80% of cellular calls are
made to and from the same five numbers. (In my own experience it's not
quite that high, but changing from a regular 1000 to a MyFaves 1000 plan
dropped my "charged" minutes from an average of 700/month to about 250.)

Also, Verizon offers fewer price points- a minimum plan is 450 for $39.99,
while T-Mo and Sprint offer lower usage $29.99 plans with 300 and 200
minutes respectively.

> It's actually often less than the other carriers for voice because they
> offer a large number of corporate discounts, plus their garbage fees are
> lower.

AT&T also offers corporate discounts, and so far we've avoided mentioning
Sprint's ridiculously inexpensive SERO plans which only require knowing the
e-mail address of ANYONE who works for Sprint to qualify for. As to garbage
fees, Verizon and T-Mo's "regulatory" fees are both under a buck, and
AT&T's
and Sprint's are a little over- not a big difference, AFAIK.

> However they do really sock it to you if you go over your minutes, and
> there is no rollover like on AT&T.

Which, again, for some customers is a huge deal.

What's really telling about all of this, is when AT&T (Cingular) first
started the "rollover" thing, they REDUCED the number of minutes in their
plans to reflect it. (Remember they offered both rollover and non-rollover
plans simultaneously at first. Verizon USED to compete with Cingular at the
"non-rollover" level. When Cingular dumped the non-rollover plans, Verizon
Verizon and Sprint started tracking the rollover minute amounts instead,
offering less bang for the buck than before.

 

John Navas

On Fri, 8 Feb 2008 20:14:39 -0700, "Todd Allcock"
<elecconnec@AmericaOnLine.com> wrote in <foj5rn$5k9$1@aioe.org>:

>What's really telling about all of this, is when AT&T (Cingular) first
>started the "rollover" thing, they REDUCED the number of minutes in their
>plans to reflect it.

Makes no sense. I'm on a 1000 anytime minute plan with over 5000
rollover minutes.

--
Best regards,
John Navas <http:/navasgroup.com>

"Usenet is like a herd of performing elephants with diarrhea - massive,
difficult to redirect, awe inspiring, entertaining, and a source of mind
boggling amounts of excrement when you least expect it." --Gene Spafford

Todd Allcock

"John Navas" <spamfilter1@navasgroup.com> wrote in message
news:267qq3dnu4e1hh7s915a71bqcg8n66ml1k@4ax.com...
> On Fri, 8 Feb 2008 20:14:39 -0700, "Todd Allcock"
> <elecconnec@AmericaOnLine.com> wrote in <foj5rn$5k9$1@aioe.org>:
>
>>What's really telling about all of this, is when AT&T (Cingular) first
>>started the "rollover" thing, they REDUCED the number of minutes in their
>>plans to reflect it.
>
> Makes no sense. I'm on a 1000 anytime minute plan with over 5000
> rollover minutes.

I assume that was the $39.99/1000 promo plan only available in select
markets to compete with T-mobile's promo a couple of years back?

Rollover, if I'm correct, started out west where you are so maybe it was
handled differently there since Cingular offered very little roaming on GSM
plans in the pre-TDMA-to-GSM conversion days. I was in Kansas City, a TDMA
market at the time. When Cingular introduced rollover in TDMA-land, they
brought it out as a separate set of rate plans _in addition to_ our
existing rate plans. So we had, for example, "Cingular Nation 400" (I'm
working out of failing memory, so the actual minute amounts might be wrong-
I've sold a LOT of different Cingular plans in my decade as an indy!)) that
was 400 anytime (free N&W) for $39.99, AND say, a corresponding "Cingular
Nation 300" (with Rollover) for $39.99. So customers could choose either a
rollover plan with fewer minutes, or "expiring" minute plans with more.

Eventually the non-rollover plans were dropped, to focus on the Rollover
concept and to eliminate customer confusion. East of the Rockies we had
three sets of individual rate plans at one point; Cingular Region (regional
native Cingular coverage depending on the market- mine covered eastern
Kansas/western Missouri), Cingular Nation (Nationwide, including roaming-
primarily on ATTWS TDMA) and Cingular Nation with Rollover (the same
Cingular Nation coverage but with fewer minutes as I described above-
essentially what's offered today.)

My point was, Verizon used to offer a similar "competitive" number of
minutes to the "regular" non-rollover rate plans, but after Cingular
dropped the non-rollover plans, Verizon's plans "synched up" to the newer
fewer-minutes Cingular rollover plans (but without offering rollover, of
course!) the next time carriers overhauled their plans. My point was that
Verizon was obviously offering less value compared to Cingular at that point,
at least compared to previously.

As a Cingular dealer in the former SBMS-territory, I really wasn't very
privvy to (or concerned with) what was happening in the old PacTel area at
the time except to notice that the western region had a completely
different set of (cheaper) rate plans, a MUCH smaller "national" coverage
area, (and different handsets, obviously!)