Cell-phone companies roll out new fees
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By Reid J. Epstein
Wall Street Journal
The telecom meltdown is about to take a bigger chunk of your cell-phone bill.
Having already scaled back on bargain-basement plans, major wireless companies are rolling out a series of fees and restrictions that will raise monthly payments for a wide variety of cell-phone users. Starting yesterday, for example, Sprint PCS customers who dial 4 to check how much time they have remaining on their monthly plan will find the time spent on the phone subtracted from their allotment. Next month, Cingular Wireless will begin charging its customers 10 cents for each text message received — whether read or not.
Nextel recently became the last carrier to round up minutes on many plans. Before, if you were on a Nextel call for, say, 1 minute and 2 seconds, that counted as 1 minute and 10 seconds. Now it counts as 2 minutes on certain plans.
The companies are responding to an industrywide meltdown over the past two years. Telecom stock prices overall have sunk some 70 percent from their heyday.
Now the industry is trying to nickel and dime its way into higher revenues — and the numbers can add up. Rick Black, a senior telecom analyst at Blaylock & Partners, estimates the stingy steps would amount to a 2 percent to 3 percent increase in revenue, or about $2 billion industrywide.
AT&T Wireless Services Inc. and Sprint PCS, a division of Sprint Corp., have raised the cost of directory assistance to $1.25 from 99 cents. For new contracts, the major wireless providers have pushed back the demarcation hour for the coveted nights-and-weekends airtime to 9 p.m. from 8 p.m.
Already, cell-phone users are feeling the pinch. When Chris McKemie recently called Sprint PCS to drop a $10 service feature from his plan, he was told he'd lose an hour of night-and-weekend minutes in the process.
Consumers changing plans in this more restrictive environment may need to adjust their calling patterns. After four years with AT&T Wireless, Ken Barnes, a corporate trainer in Sacramento, Calif., recently left for Nextel Communications Inc. Now Barnes' plan allows unlimited incoming calls.
One trick: Use your contract longevity to your advantage. Barney Gimbel moved from Atlanta to New York in July. But when he called Sprint PCS to change to a local phone number, he was stunned to find his nighttime minutes would not start until 9 p.m.
But Gimbel, 22, had a secret weapon: a friend in Nebraska who had also just moved, and was able to keep the 8 p.m. threshold. "I called up and said, 'I don't think it's fair that I've been a customer of yours for four years and you offer a plan to a friend of mine and not offer it to me,' " he says. Sprint caved.
Meanwhile, the wireless companies are maintaining some perks for major business customers but not for everyday customers. Cingular Wireless, a joint venture between SBC Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp., and Sprint PCS offer businesses toll-free numbers that allow callers to bypass automated systems and speak directly with customer-service agents.
Cingular Wireless won't release its customer-service numbers, but callers to the Sprint PCS business-service number — (888) 328-4252 — get an agent on the phone immediately. Sprint PCS' everyday customers can wait 15 to 20 minutes before speaking to a real person when dialing 2.
