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Consumers are the winners as wireless plans get cheaper
— -- Starting Monday, Sprint will begin offering a new "share" plan that offers 3,000 voice minutes and a bounty of add-ons for $169.99 a month for two lines. Additional lines cost $19.99 each.
In addition to the 50 hours of calling time, subscribers will receive: unlimited messaging and e-mail, unlimited access to the mobile Web, 50 streaming music channels, 25-plus live TV channels, on-demand TV — clips as well as full-length TV shows — and unlimited GPS navigation. For sports fans, there's also unlimited access to NFL Mobile and NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile. BlackBerry users also qualify for this plan.
Cheaper plans with fewer services start at $69.99 a month. Depending on the plan, lines can be added for as little as $9.99 a month.
For a family of three, the $169.99 plan represents a $45 savings off Sprint's prior plans, says Walter Piecyk, a telecom analyst at Pali Research. The savings is $60 compared with Verizon and $45 compared with AT&T wireless. The latter don't offer GPS navigation or BlackBerry options, he notes.
With prices for gas, food and other necessities rising, Piecyk says Sprint's approach is pitch-perfect.
"If you can save somebody $50 to $60 on a rate plan, they're going to switch," he predicts.
Sprint has been struggling with a string of operational problems related to the Nextel merger. Piecyk says most consumers don't care about that — but they do care an awful lot about saving money.
"If you cut the price enough, that moves customers," he says.
Verizon, on the cusp of becoming the USA's No. 1 wireless carrier, thanks to its proposed acquisition of Alltel, is also turning up the marketing heat.
Next week, Verizon plans to start offering discounts of $8 to $21 a month to people who buy wireless services plus any other service, such as advanced cable TV, marketed as FiOS — short for Fiber-Optic Services — or high-speed broadband. Previously, consumers had to buy a traditional landline service to qualify for a discount. The more services you buy, the bigger the discount.
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