Are Unlimited Calling Plans a Bargain or an Up-Sell?

Thu Feb 21, 2008 7:13PM EST

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I love it when big companies vie for first place. You know who the winner is, don't you? That would be us.

The latest buzzword in mobile phone-speak is unlimited calling. The first salvo came from Verizon Wireless earlier in the week. It introduced an unlimited calling plan for $99.99 a month. On the plan, you get unlimited minutes, no domestic roaming or long distance charges, and mobile Web 2.0. (This doesn't include surcharges, taxes, and fees or activation fees.)

Within hours, AT&T Mobility offered its version of the $99 unlimited plan. For the moment, Sprint's unlimited plan remains at $119.99 a month, but it includes unlimited web use, email, and messaging. The company has not announced a price, cut but the week's still young. Engadget is already hot on the rumor trail about a $60 a month unlimited calling option from Sprint.

And T-Mobile USA also announced its price-cutting week, too. For $99, it offers unlimited nationwide calling, but ups the ante by adding unlimited messaging, including text messages (SMS), picture messages (MMS), and instant messages (IM).

Is $99 for unlimited calling right for you? Possibly not. The carriers can substantially increase their revenue by upselling you to a more expensive plan than you need in the name of "unlimited." You know the sales speak: "For just a few dollars more a month than you're already spending you can have unlimited use."

BusinessWeek quoted a communications and media consultancy practice, that reported only 5 percent to 15 percent of the combined customer base of the three of the four largest U.S. cell-phone service providers would probably save by converting to the all-you-can-talk calling plans.

If you're in the 5 percent to 15 percent, then hooray for you! If you're not, you might be spending more than you need to spend. Before you sign on the dotted line, do an inventory of a few months of bills. My hunch is that most of the people who will benefit from the new $99 unlimited game are those who are either always over their minute limits or already pay $99 for a fixed number of minutes. In other words, heavy volume callers.

If you're paying $39 a month and stay within your minutes, there's not a lot of reason for the "unlimited" word to lure you.

 

Comments on Are Unlimited Calling Plans a Bargain or an Up-Sell?

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  • 1 Posted by pwdrskir on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:22PM EDT Report Abuse

    I saw it reported that Sprint has lost as many as 700k customers in the last 6 months. I've been with them for 12 years and haven't had much to complain about. Granted, I don't know what I might be missing. I'm going to see what the other companies have to offer this March when my contract is over.

  • 2 Posted by b_harris265 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:16PM EDT Report Abuse

    JUST REMEMBER, IF YOU GO TO "CHECK OUT" SOMEONE ELSE, YOU COULD BE TIED INTO THEM FOR ANOTHER TWO YEARS.

  • 3 Posted by zkbzjm on Thu Sep 3, 2009 11:01PM EDT Report Abuse

    so thats the end of rollover minutes then/would be nice to be able to convert rollover minutes to cash/credit!

  • 4 Posted by shtino205 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:21PM EDT Report Abuse

    Good for business users because of roaming and that is it. It isn't new and isn't all that cheap. MetroPCS in detroit total taxes and junk with unlimited talk and text 45 and change. Since I travel out of mich. so rarely who cares about roaming savings.

  • 5 Posted by pwdrskir on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:22PM EDT Report Abuse

    Yes, "Check Out" does have it's downfalls. I signed up for a "Free" 2 week trial with T-Mobile at Costco on Oct. 19th, 2007 and was stuck with a $35 bill for the 2 weeks of service. When I returned the phone Oct. 30th, Costco gave me a receipt dated Nov. 1st. Luckily, it was still within the 14 day return period, but Costco could have really cost me a lot of money.

  • 6 Posted by cellphoneuser1202 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:20PM EDT Report Abuse

    I just inquired about a new battery, yesterday, before you knew it they were going to give me a new c-phone and renew my contract. They also tried to sell me an unlimited package This was from AT&T I was in a hurry,said i would be back Monday, glad i read this artical

  • 7 Posted by huskwimple on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:21PM EDT Report Abuse

    Sprint will probably come out with something is a week or so, I would wait if you want an unlimited plan. http://www.cell-stuff.net

  • 8 Posted by edvaquiz on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:52PM EDT Report Abuse

    I dont think is fair for consumer to pay a penalty for early termination I think that FCC should banned this early termination fee its good for all of us to have the right to percieve with new provider when ever we can because not all provider have powerful signal and yet if for us to try different company see who is the best, verizon is one of the company that even if I dont use the phone for a period of time they still charge me over the limit am sure you get to have this problem with them and some others, their data is not accurate as it should be we are getting over charge for service that we dont use

  • 9 Posted by growlnroar on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:13PM EDT Report Abuse

    Unlimited plans are far from new. I was quite happy with SunCom and their unPlan (60$ a month, which was an awesome deal at the time). Until they got swallowed by Cingular which got swallowed by AT&T. I've never been happy since. I'm almost at the point of paying the exit fee just to get a new carrier that can offer a solid unlimited plan (without internet, I really don't need it.)

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