Laptops Desktops Monitors & LCDs Graphics Cards Handhelds Phones Software Networks Printers More »
search
advertisement
Click Here.
AnchorDesk

David Coursey
Switching cell phone carriers? Read this first!

David Coursey
Executive Editor, AnchorDesk
Wednesday, June 11, 2003
TalkBack!Add your opinion
If you don't already have vacation plans this summer, perhaps you might want to buy a cell phone. I mention this because it seems the average customer can either spend a week researching prices, plans, and phones or just accept that some cellular carrier is going to get the better of them.

Remember the old joke about the difference between a used-car salesman and a computer salesman? (The used-car salesman knows when he's lying.) Well, computer salespeople seem to have gotten smarter while cell phone salespeople have taken their place.

TODAY I'M GOING TO try to machete my way though the cell phone jungle and offer some buying advice on both carriers and specific models.

First, the overall market condition: I talked to Joni Blecher, who reviews cell phones for ZDNet and CNET, and she confirmed something I'd noticed myself: Prices have gone up. As cell phones have become mandatory lifestyle accessories, monthly service fees have inched up. What used to be a $30 monthly service now seems more like a $40 or $50 service.

There are still "free" phones to be had when you sign up for service, but they're often offset by the penalty charges you'll face if you try to jump ship from the carrier before your service commitment ends.

The other big industry trend: Last week, a federal appeals court ruled that the cell carriers have until Nov. 24 to make customer phone numbers "portable" from one carrier to another.

This has been a hotly contested issue. The cell carriers, who have already won three delays, say number portability will cost them billions and they're lobbying Congress for yet another delay. The carriers say the money could be better spent on enhanced 911 services, another FCC requirement that the carriers have been slow to implement.

If wireless number portability comes to pass, customers would own their numbers and be able (in most cases) to take the number with them when they change carriers. Right now, having to change numbers is a major reason why people don't dump their cell phone providers. Nevertheless, estimates are that between 33 and 40 percent of cellular customers already change carriers during a given year.

THE FCC SAYS number portability would encourage competition. I agree. Here's what could happen when and if portability comes to pass:

• Cellular service could become a commodity, with price being an even more important factor than it is today. Some customers would doubtlessly change carriers fairly often in search of the lowest bill. But moving a number from one carrier to another could still cost you.

• Service could become a more important differentiator than it is today. A carrier might try to justify higher prices by providing better coverage, fewer dropped calls, real humans to talk to when you need help, etc.

• Lacking a means to lock in customers, carriers could start aggressively enforcing early termination penalties and find other means of signing customers to longer-term agreements that could cost hundreds of dollars to get out of.

So, if you're willing to bet that weak-kneed congressmen won't knuckle under to the cellular carriers, you might want to wait and see what happens. Still, it may be a year before any of this happens--even if all goes well--and that's a long time to wait.

IN THE MEANTIME, watch for tougher contract terms and, especially, for having to recommit for a year or more if you change pricing plans with your current carrier. I've found it worthwhile to call my carrier and demand better pricing. The last time I did that, however, Sprint wanted either a full-year commitment or to charge me an extra $10 per month.

That's what led to my abortive AT&T Wireless experience. With AT&T the price I thought I was getting and what I actually got were two very different things. What I thought would be a savings over Sprint never materialized, so I will likely return to my old carrier. I've considered Verizon, but the allure of Sprint's PCS Vision data services--and the cool cam phone--have proven difficult to resist.

T-Mobile doesn't strike me as a credible option right now, and I make too many long-distance calls to make MetroPCS a competitor for my business. Cingular gives me the willies for some reason--maybe because of my old PacBell PCS experience. And I hate the Verizon TV commercials even more than I hate the Sprint TV commercials. Having said that, my high-mileage friends say Verizon has, by far, the best network.

It's something between difficult and impossible to actually compare the offers being made by cellular carriers, which can vary on a market-to-market and day-to-day basis. But I can raise some of the issues you need to factor into a cellular buying decision:

Current usage: Three months of cellular bills are an excellent tool when purchasing new service. So long as nothing changes in your calling patterns, you can compare what you are being offered to what you are now using. One caveat: Be aware that surpassing your allotted plan minutes can become very expensive, so you may want to consider buying based on your highest expected usage rather than your average. At the same time, note the trend: My personal usage has decreased over time, but the proportion of long-distance to local calls has increased.

What is included in your plan: How many minutes, what time of day, and where can you call? Is long distance included or do you pay separately for those calls?

Hardware: Does the offer include one or more "free" phones and how long a commitment are you making in order to get them?

Data services: Using a data service and then finding out that data isn't included in your plan can lead to surprises like the one I had: I used 1.5MB of data on the AT&T Wireless network to check e-mail and got a bill for $21.

Other services: One reason I want to return to Sprint is its network-based voice dialing service, which I found very convenient. There may be other services you like that may or may not be included in a particular plan.

Those are just the basics. But if you're comparing three or four carriers with all these variables (actual usage, plan pricing, contract commitment, hardware cost, long distance, data, other services), the analysis can be quite complex. Which is why most people are at the mercy of their cellular carrier, never knowing whether or not they actually got the best price.

In a perfect world, the regulators would do something to make cellular pricing easier to compare across carriers. Of course, in such a world we'd already have number portability and enhanced 911. So I'm not holding my breath.

What do you think? Have you switched carriers lately? Did you get what you wanted? Any surprises? TalkBack to me! 

  Next Story 

Special sponsor stores
advertisement
Click Here