Office Technology

Choosing the Best Cell Phone Service

By Richard Rogowski

At 76 million, cellular phones now outnumber personal computers, so it's not surprising that you see them everywhere these days — in cars, grocery stores, restaurants and even on the beach. And North Carolinians definitely have flipped for flip phones; in one recent study Charlotte ranked second, the Triad fourth and the Triangle 11th nationally in the percentage of adults with cell phones.

But while cell phones have ingrained themselves into our lives and become standard equipment for business people, they also can be expensive, especially if you pick a service plan than doesn't fit your particular needs. So it pays to shop around after you've done some homework. And the questions you should be able to answer often are the same ones you looked into before selecting a long-distance company for the office switchboard.

How many long distance calls do your employees make? From where and to what locations? At what times of day?

Questions like these may help in deciding whether to go with a cellular plan that still includes a roaming fee for calls made outside the carrier's local area, a plan with no or very low long-distance charges, or a plan that offers company-wide discounts based on the number of employees that will be using the service.

As a starting point, you also need a quick refresher on cell phone technology. There are two kinds — analog and digital. When cellular service began in the early 1980s there was only one format, analog, the same kind as used by standard telephones. An analog cell phone signal is transmitted to a tower, which amplifies and then relays the signal to the person you're calling.

Digital cellular, which began in 1995 when the Federal Communications Commission allowed the use of new radio frequencies, runs on the same binary language of ones and zeros that computers use. The analog voice is digitized, transmitted, then converted back into analog form by the receiving phone. Because the signal is being regenerated rather than amplified, there isn't the noise and voice distortion that often is evident in analog cellular. Digital technology also makes it possible for many cell phone users to send and receive e-mail or transfer computer files.

Digital cellular — and its higher frequency neighbor, personal communications service or PCS — also is more secure because the signal can be encrypted to prevent eavesdropping and cloning (the illegal practice of programming another cell phone using stolen electronic serial and mobile identification numbers).

Both the phone itself and monthly service charges are more expensive for digital than analog service, sometimes quite markedly. Next you need to know your options in selecting a service provider. We've done that legwork for you by talking with all the companies that offer cellular service in North Carolina and briefly outlining their service plans:

ALLTEL

Headquartered in Little Rock, Ark., ALLTEL began providing wireless service in the mid-1980s and was the first to offer wireless service to Charlotte in 1985. Today, the company provides both wireline and wireless service to 5.6 million customers in 24 states. Its 1998 revenues totaled $5.2 billion.

Patty Marquis Johnson, the company's communications manager for North and South Carolina, says ALLTEL offers both analog and digital PCS service, although she admits that the backbone of ALLTEL's network is still analog.

The company provides phones manufactured by Motorola, Qualcomm, LG and Nokia and a dual-mode phone which makes it possible to automatically switch from analog to digital without the call being dropped. Analog phone prices range from $19.95 to $129.95; digital phones from $99.95 to $195.95.

Johnson doesn't consider analog phones inferior, but she says digital ones do offer more flexibility. “It depends on what you want to use the phone for,” she says. “The main reason we want people to switch to digital is for the capacity.”

According to Johnson, ALLTEL is still the largest wireless service provider in the Carolinas, offering digital service to Charlotte, Concord, Gastonia, Monroe, Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Burlington, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, High Point, Fayetteville and Wilmington. In South Carolina, it provides service to Charleston, Columbia, Greenville, Myrtle Beach, Hilton Head and Rock Hill.

ALLTEL offers two major rate plans in the Carolinas, Johnson says. The “Carolina Freedom Plan” offers rates ranging from $19.95 a month for 45 minutes to $159.95 for 1,800 minutes. Overages — what you pay for using more minutes of air time than the plan allows — range from 45 cents per minute to 20 cents per minute, respectively.

This plan applies throughout the Carolinas plus Norfolk, Va., Savannah, Ga. and Augusta, Ga. It also includes toll-free calling for calls originating and terminating in all 50 states and no roaming charges for any call in the Carolinas.

ALLTEL's “Southern Advantage Plan” offers rates ranging from $34.95 a month for 150 minutes to $129.95 for 1,500 minutes. Overage rates are 25 cent per minute and 10 cents per minute, respectively. For calls originating within the Southern Advantage area — the Carolinas, Virginia, Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Tennessee — there are no long-distance or roaming charges. In addition, the plan includes free caller ID, call waiting and voice mail.

ALLTEL also offers volume discounts and bundled-service discounts for corporate clients, as well as aggregate rate plans for minutes “pooled” between a number of employees, Johnson adds.

AT&T Wireless

Using phones manufactured by Nokia and Ericsson, and serving more than 7,000 cities throughout the U.S., AT&T Wireless Services Inc. launched its “Digital One Rate Plan” with no long-distance or roaming charges nationwide.

This plan offers up to 600 minutes for $89.99 a month; up to 1,000 minutes for $119.99 a month; and up to 1,400 minutes for $149.99 a month. Overages are charged at 25 cents per minute.

AT&T's “Advantage Calling Plan” is only available to North Carolina customers. Rates range from $24.99 for up to 100 minutes to $99.99 for up to 1,500 minutes. Overages range from 32 cents to 20 cents per minute, respectively.

When calling from outside your home calling area there is a roaming charge of 60 cents per minute. Likewise, long-distance calls are charged at the rate of 15 cents per minute.

North Carolina's “Home Calling Area” literally follows I-85, I-40 and U.S. 77 from Raleigh to Greensboro and Winston-Salem, then down to Statesville and Charlotte. Surrounding those narrow bands is the area called the “Expanded Home Calling Area.” Here, you are charged your home airtime rate where coverage is available. Outside this area is the “Carolina Super System.” Here you are charged the same rate you would be charged after your home calling plan minutes have expired. However, airtime usage in this area will not count toward your packaged minutes.

AT&T Wireless also offers an “Advantage Corporate Calling Plan,” available to companies with three or more phone lines. For $18.00 per month per phone, the home airtime rate is 25 cents per minute with a minimum usage of 500 minutes per account. But volume discounts off home airtime and monthly access fees also are available, ranging from 10 percent for 2,001 to 5,000 minutes, to 25 percent for 30,001 or more minutes.

BellSouth Mobility DCS

BellSouth Mobility DCS is 100 percent digital and is a PCS provider serving North and South Carolina, eastern Tennessee, southwestern Virginia and eastern Georgia, says Laine Seely, marketing manager.

Phones provided by Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola and Mitsubishi use “smart card technology.” The smart card is credit card sized and stores all the information about your phone, services and address book. The smart card can be removed from your cell phone and inserted into another phone — handy for salesmen who move from one company car to another.

BellSouth Mobility DCS divides its large regional service areas into local mobile calling areas. All calls made within these areas are considered local calls. Also, any calls made within the BellSouth Mobility DCS network are free of roaming charges.

Among a number of rate plans available is the “Digital Leisure Plan” with rates ranging from $15 a month for 15 minutes to $100 a month for 1,400 minutes. Overages are charged at 39 cents per minute and 10 cents per minute, respectively. Domestic long-distance rates under this plan range from 25 cents per minute to 10 cents per minute.

The company's “Digital Complete Choice Plan” offers combined billing for landline and wireless service. North Carolina residents are charged $21.95 per month and receive 200 packaged minutes. Overages are charged at 30 cents per minute, and the domestic long-distance charge is 20 cents per minute. This plan includes caller ID, call waiting, call hold and call forwarding.

The newest plan rolled out by BellSouth Mobility DCS is its “All-In-One Plan.”

According to Seely, this rate plan allows subscribers to use their DCS phones in many other parts of the country served by the same networks without paying long-distance or roaming charges.

For $79.95 a month, wireless users get 600 minutes. For $109.95 a month, they get 1,000 minutes. Included in this plan is basic voice mail, numeric paging, caller ID, call waiting, call hold and message alert.

The marriage of voice and data is evident in the Nokia 9000i communicator which integrates phone, fax, e-mail, word processing and PC connectivity into one 14-ounce mobile phone. With a price tag of $849.95, it is the centerpiece of BellSouth Mobility DCS's data services offering. This fall, subscribers also will be able to receive news updates from CNN Interactive.

BellSouth Mobility DCS offers volume discounts to corporate clients, Seely says, but they're handled on a case-by-case basis. No shared plans or pooled minutes are offered.

GTE Wireless

Like ALLTEL, GTE Wireless provides both analog and digital service, according to Pam Tope, area general manager-midsouth. “It will be a few years before we're 100 percent digital,” she says. “But the phones we sell work in both analog and digital areas.”

These include phones made by Qualcomm, Samsung, LG, Sony, Motor- ola, and Nokia. GTE also sells a phone made by Ericsson, but it is analog only.

GTE's network uses a “soft-handoff,” meaning that calls can be handed down from digital to analog without dropping the call.

GTE's ad campaign, “The United State of America,” launched last February, emphasizes that GTE cell phone users are not charged a roaming fee anywhere in the country. Rate plans start at $19.95 per month and corporate clients can receive volume discounts and pooled minutes.

GTE recently rolled out its “Personal Productivity Pack” offering half-price domestic wireless long distance service and other special features specifically designed for those who must be away from the office frequently, but require the convenience and accessibility of the office.

The cost for the GTE Personal Productivity Pack is $5.95 per month with basic voice mail, or $8.95 per month for a package with enhanced voice mail.

It also unveiled its new “Group Calling Package” which offers up to 5,000 minutes of local mobile-to-mobile calling and other specially selected features. According to Tope, this package provides a complete wireless business solution for local mobile work groups whose members need to stay in touch with one another and with the main office while they're on a job site, a customer's facility or other remote location.

Included are unlimited operator-assisted text messaging; 100 PC-initiated text messages per month; enhanced voice mail with pager notification; call waiting, call forwarding, three-way calling; and no answer/busy transfer.

Group Calling pricing varies by market, but either service package may be added to most existing GTE rate plans.

Tope adds that GTE Wireless also has developed a network that allows subscribers direct access to the internet. Currently available only in Raleigh, Nashville and Louisville, Ky., this network is being used in the Triangle by the Wake County Sheriff's Department and by building inspectors in Cary.

GTE Wireless had 1998 revenues of $3.1 billion, up from $2.9 billion in 1997, and Tope foresees banner years ahead. “Once we merge with Bell Atlantic, we'll be the largest wireless company in the country,” she says.

Nextel Communications

With 1998 revenues of $1.85 billion, Nextel Communications Inc. provides a nationwide digital network primarily for business users, says Scott Hoganson, president, midsouth area. It also was the first cellular phone company to eliminate roaming charges across the country.

Nextel's service is unique in that if offers phones designed and manufactured by Motorola which combine regular digital cell phone capabilities — including text/numeric paging and voice mail — with a two-way radio.

By using Motorola's iDEN (integrated digital enhanced network) technology which transmits packets of digitized information, Nextel is able to integrate standard digital features while providing its “push-to-talk” feature called “Direct Connect.” This feature is the two-way radio part of the phone that allows a caller to instantly connect to one person or a group of people at the same time with only the push of a button, Hoganson says.

With Direct Connect, Nextel subscribers also can become part of a “Business Network” which provides direct links to other area network members. Hoganson cited a number of Wendy's restaurant franchisees in the Triad and principals in Wake County schools who are currently using these specialized networks.

Serving the Triangle, Triad and the Charlotte-Piedmont area, Nextel's rate plans range from $74.95 for 200 minutes of cellular time to $124.95 for 800 minutes of cellular time. Private calls using Direct Connect have no time limits but group calls are charged at the rate of 12 cents per minute. All long-distance calls cost 15 cents per minute.

Numeric paging is included, but text messages cost $3 for 100 to $15 for 1,000. Voice mail or caller ID costs an additional $3 per month for each.

Sprint PCS

With 1998 revenues of $17.13 billion, Sprint PCS claims to have the nation's largest 100 percent digital, 100 percent PCS, wireless network. The company offers two nationwide rate plans with no roaming charges while within the Sprint network. The “Free and Clear Plan” ranges from $29.99 for 120 minutes to $149.99 for 1,500 minutes. Overage charges range from 35 cents to 25 cents per minute, respectively. There is no charge for domestic long-distance calls.

The “Standard Service Plan” ranges from $16.99 for 30 minutes to $149.99 for 1,800 minutes. Overage charges range from 35 cents to 15 cents per minute, respectively. Long-distance charges under this plan are 15 cents per minute.

Both plans include free caller ID, call waiting and three-way calling.

According to Joe Probst, Sprint's direct sales manager, the company also offers business customers several additional pricing and enhanced programs. These include a “National Volume Program” with discounts from 5 percent to 20 percent on all monthly reoccurring charges based on a total of all phones, corporate and employee, under that business; a “Shared Minutes Plan” where five or more phones share the sum of their rate plan minutes; a “Team Option,” in which businesses can buy bundles of minutes to be used between their PCS phones at a discounted price; and a “Traveler Option,” where businesses can buy bundles of analog roaming minutes to be used when traveling outside Sprint's network.

In September, Sprint PCS deployed a wireless web service. With a built-in modem, handsets made by Neopoint, Denso, Nokia and Qualcomm have browser capability and can be connected directly to a laptop, palmtop or other personal digital assistants. Automatic and customized updates from Yahoo! also are available.

Sprint PCS customers can add this service to any price plan that's $29.99 more for an additional $9.99 per month.

COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL. This article first appeared in the October 1999 issue of North Carolina magazine.