Cingular tests unlimited calls to AT&T home phones

[jones]

Cingular tests unlimited calls to AT&T home phones
Wed Nov 30, 2005 9:44 AM ET



NEW YORK (Reuters) - Cingular Wireless, in a bid to improve customer loyalty, is testing a service that allows unlimited calls between its cell phones and the home phones of AT&T Inc.'s local telephone customers, Cingular said on Wednesday.

Cingular, the No. 1 U.S. mobile service, is a joint venture of BellSouth Corp. <BLS.N> and AT&T <SBC.N>, which was recently formed when SBC Communications Inc. bought AT&T Corp.

The test program, dubbed Mobile2Home, comes as local phone operators face increasing competition from cable providers, and as mobile providers have to fight harder to win new mobile users and hold onto existing ones.

Mobile2Home will cost $5.99 a month and will be available only until February 25 to Connecticut customers who combine their AT&T local phone bills with their Cingular phone bills.

One analyst predicted that the trial would be popular with consumers and force rivals to follow suit.

"I believe the customers will love it and it will drive the competitors to offer similar combinations," independent telecommunications analyst Jeff Kagan said.

"This bonding of wireline and wireless calling will help AT&T with their retention of customers as the industry changes and new competitors like other Baby Bells and the cable television companies gear up to compete," he added.

The concept is similar to unlimited mobile-to-mobile call packages that wireless operators, including Cingular, already sell. Kagan believes this is the first package that combines traditional home phone and wireless services.

If the service is expanded, it would be a step toward U.S. operators' ambitions to integrate traditional landline phone services with wireless services to improve convenience and tie in customers for longer.

A Cingular rival, Sprint Nextel Corp. <S.N>, recently created a venture with four cable operators in a bid to jointly develop services to help them compete against regional operators such as AT&T, Verizon Communications <VZ.N> and BellSouth.

"AT&T was able to beat them to the punch," Kagan said.

http://today.reuters.com/business/ne...LAR-ATT-DC.XML

[Andy]

NOt a bad idea at all. It's a great way to get up revenue for nothing, though...Very smart idea.

[danny boi]

Smart move by AT&T. This will be one more reason NOT to ditch your landline and a way to keep services inside the AT&T family line.

[Fire14]

I like the idea and agree it's smart but I just wonder about the added $5.99 per line fee to have this feature,
I don't see many people going for it with the higher rate, unless they only have 1 cell phone, then it might be worth the extra money especially if you are a person who travels & calls home alot and have the AT&T landline service.
I can also see people wanting to know who they call on a regular basis has AT&T as there landline service, especially after the original AT&T had decided to get out of the local business.
I guess we will see what happens by March when they finish the trial & if they expand the service or not.
I wonder why they choose CT. for the test area? Because SBC already had a presence there?

[xikle]

True, I think Alltel did something like that. You could pick one number that was a landline that you could have unlimited calls to. I don't remember if it was just a limited time promo or not though.

[viewfly]

Hey I'm a combined billing and CT customer...so that means me! Hmm I'll have to think about it, but with a kid going off to college soon, it might be useful for the calls home.

I guess it is per line, not per family plan though.

[Fire14]

Originally Posted by xikle

True, I think Alltel did something like that. You could pick one number that was a landline that you could have unlimited calls to. I don't remember if it was just a limited time promo or not though.

I remember they did that, ususally it was just your home # that was included, as for them still doing it I am not sure. The only difference here is any call to any AT&T landline customer counts, I wonder if Call Vantage VoIP customers would be included in these unlimited calls?

[jones]

Originally Posted by Fire14

I like the idea and agree it's smart but I just wonder about the added $5.99 per line fee to have this feature,

It's Basically Not Just your Home Landline but to other Landlines in the State.

[xikle]

Originally Posted by jones

It's Basically Not Just your Home Landline but to other Landlines in the State.

But if you had a family plan would it be a feature added to the whole plan or is it a per line fee on the family plan?

[bobolito]

Originally Posted by jones

It's Basically Not Just your Home Landline but to other Landlines in the State.

As long as it is an AT&T landline. Don't forget there are other companies around.

[Fire14]

Originally Posted by jones

It's Basically Not Just your Home Landline but to other Landlines in the State.

I did understand that, but it actually doesn't state just to people in CT with an AT&T landline so I wonder if it would be to anyone in the country with an AT&T Local landline account?

Originally Posted by xikle

True, I think Alltel did something like that. You could pick one number that was a landline that you could have unlimited calls to. I don't remember if it was just a limited time promo or not though.

Per the Alltel site, they still offer it to the home # on family plans with 2 lines or more, on select plans with the Unlimited N&W and M2M or for a single line it's $5.00 per month. Also the calls must begin & end on the Alltel network for it to count.
By this factor it's a better deal for a single line that Cingular will be offering, because it includes all AT&T Landline customers, and even for family plans it includes alot more people you can call without using your mins.

[dustn872]

Originally Posted by Fire14

I did understand that, but it actually doesn't state just to people in CT with an AT&T landline so I wonder if it would be to anyone in the country with an AT&T Local landline account?



Per the Alltel site, they still offer it to the home # on family plans with 2 lines or more, on select plans with the Unlimited N&W and M2M or for a single line it's $5.00 per month. Also the calls must begin & end on the Alltel network for it to count.
By this factor it's a better deal for a single line that Cingular will be offering, because it includes all AT&T Landline customers, and even for family plans it includes alot more people you can call without using your mins.

Even though Alltel advertises this feature as Mobile to Home, it does not have to be your home number. They allow you to choose any number, landline or another cellular provider, to count as unlimited mobile to mobile minutes. The only catch is that the number you choose must be in your specific alltel market. Still a great feature that Alltel has had for some time now. Looks like the other guys are finally catching on to its success.

[Etorres777]

Well it would have made more sense to me to do this trial in the state AT&T is based in, Texas (that I would benefit from LOL). Maybe they wanted a smaller state?

[Fire14]

Originally Posted by Etorres777

Well it would have made more sense to me to do this trial in the state AT&T is based in, Texas (that I would benefit from LOL). Maybe they wanted a smaller state?

Either that or they looked at all of the AT&T land line customers in the states SBC covered before the merger & CT had the most with AT&T landlines and might have a decent amt of Cingular customers to test it with. (just a theory)

[Kalimotxo]

Sounds like a great way for Cingular to make some extra money while adding a pretty useful feature. Imagine a world where VZW and Verizon Landlines could do that... whew. Maybe this free to landline thing will be the next huge promo for cell companies...

[Etorres777]

Originally Posted by Wumpusva

Sounds like a great way for Cingular to make some extra money while adding a pretty useful feature. Imagine a world where VZW and Verizon Landlines could do that... whew. Maybe this free to landline thing will be the next huge promo for cell companies...

Yeah probably will.

[Fire14]

Originally Posted by Wumpusva

Sounds like a great way for Cingular to make some extra money while adding a pretty useful feature. Imagine a world where VZW and Verizon Landlines could do that... whew. Maybe this free to landline thing will be the next huge promo for cell companies...

I am sure if Cingular's test works out then Verizon will come up with the same setup especially once they finish the merger with MCI, either that or Verizon will come out with something real soon to Verizon landline customers to compete with Cingular.

[Etorres777]

Originally Posted by Fire14

I am sure if Cingular's test works out then Verizon will come up with the same setup especially once they finish the merger with MCI, either that or Verizon will come out with something real soon to Verizon landline customers to compete with Cingular.

Does Verizon have combined billing like AT&T and Bellsouth do?

[xikle]

I think they do, you might also get like $5 a month off your total bill. Since I never lived in a area with Verizon landline and VZW service I never looked into it.

[Fire14]

I was checking both there landline & wireless sites and they don't offer this service, they will give you combined billing, but nothing with free calls to Verizon landline customers yet.

[Etorres777]

Originally Posted by Fire14

I was checking both there landline & wireless sites and they don't offer this service, they will give you combined billing, but nothing with free calls to Verizon landline customers yet.

They'll do it after Cingular brings it out. Is there anywhere where the two compete against each other?

[bobolito]

Originally Posted by Fire14

Either that or they looked at all of the AT&T land line customers in the states SBC covered before the merger & CT had the most with AT&T landlines and might have a decent amt of Cingular customers to test it with. (just a theory)

Texas and Connecticut are basically the Mecca of Cingular and AT&T customers.

[Obi-Wan]

Awesome deal. If it comes to Chicago I'm getting it ASAP. Then 90% of my contacts will be covered - lol. I might be able to rollover 90% of my peak minutes - lol.