Sprint to Lower Plan Prices
Sprint Nextel Corp on Thursday launched a $70 monthly service plan offering unlimited calls to any U.S. cellphone in another indication that the wireless industry's pricing is under pressure.
Over the past year, wireless carriers have gotten aggressive with their rates, with pre-paid players offering unlimited plans as low as $40 a month as competition for customers intensifies. Sprint, which continues to suffer heavy subscriber losses, has pushed particularly hard in an effort to undercut the top two players, Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc.
For $70, Sprint's Any Mobile, Anytime plan allows customers to calls to any cellphone in the U.S., regardless of the carrier. The plan also comes with unlimited text messaging and data services and 450 minutes for calling landlines. Existing customers who subscribe to an "Everything Data" plan will automatically get the feature. A $170 family plan covering four people is also available.
"We don't think our customers want to have to keep track of or only talk to friends, colleagues or family members who make the same choices they do," Sprint Chief Executive Dan Hesse said in a statement.
The plan is essentially a $30 discount to Sprint's "Simply Everything" offering for any subscriber who only makes calls to cellphones. It's also a quasi-extension to the "circle" calling plans that allow a person to make unlimited calls to a select number of people regardless of whether they are on the same carrier or using a landline.
"These are people who are likely to be cutting the cord and regularly calling other cord cutters," said Roger Entner, a telecom analyst at Nielsen & Co. "This is much bigger than a calling circle."
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AT&T comes up with the "A List"
DALLAS, Sept. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Let the good times roll. With AT&T A-List with Rollover, customers can do just that--with unlimited mobile calling to and from five "VIP" domestic phone numbers at no additional cost. Families can join in the savings too with unlimited calling to up to 10 lines with FamilyTalk. And only AT&T lets you keep the minutes you save with Rollover. When A-List premieres on Sept. 20, customers can manage their A-List exclusively online at
www.att.com/alist.
"This is an incredible value for many of our customers that essentially lets them 'double dip'," said David Christopher, chief marketing officer, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. "Not only will they not use minutes from their monthly plan when they call their A-List numbers, but our unique Rollover feature means they can keep those minutes for use in future months. Nobody else is going this far in letting customers stretch their minutes. Others may let you save minutes, but only AT&T lets you keep them."
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