THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 25, 1996 TAG: 9601250405
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 117 lines
``Oh, give me a phone on the road without roam.''
So goes the sad song of many a cellular-phone user when traveling beyond his or her local calling territory.
But GTE Corp.'s Mobilnet cellular subsidiary is trying to change that tune.
Without fanfare on Jan. 1, the phone company combined Richmond and Hampton Roads into a single local calling territory. And it eliminated or cut roaming charges for customers who make calls while traveling from one part of the state to another.
Mobilnet kept the changes quiet until this week, when it rolled out a publicity campaign. ``We wanted to work out all of the bugs in the system,'' said Carla Ussery, the company's Hampton Roads general manager.
She said the changes will significantly cut charges for many local customers. She conceded that the move also will help simplify a confusing rate system that might prove to be a liability as cellular carriers like Mobilnet are faced with several new wireless phonecompetitors in the next few years.
Mobilnet and Sprint Cellular Co., Hampton Roads' two cellular carriers, will be joined by as many as five new competitors offering cellular-like services as early as next year. The new competition is possible because of the Federal Communications Commission's auction of licenses for cellular-like personal communications services.
AT&T Corp. and a group of regional phone companies that includes Bell Atlantic Corp. already have snapped up licenses to compete in Hampton Roads and several other big chunks of the state. More auctions are planned or under way.
``Certainly, we're not oblivious to the fact that we're going to have some new competitors in the marketplace,'' Ussery said.
It's not clear whether Sprint Cellular will match Mobilnet's latest moves. Sprint has a special discount offer of its own under way that offers 50 percent savings on per-minute charges, monthly service fees and activation fees.
Ussery said Mobilnet has a program similar to its Virginia offering in Texas. Under its so-called ``SuperSystem'' in Virginia, Hampton Roads customers in seven of the company's nine rate plans will have Richmond added to their local calling area at no additional charge. These customers' monthly service fees range from $39.95 to $279.95.
In addition, these same customers will be able to travel to most of the rest of the state, including Roanoke, Lynchburg, Charlottesville and Bristol, and make cellular calls without having to pay roaming charges. Ussery said such charges start at about $4 a day and increase by about $1 a minute.
Hampton Roads customers traveling to Northern Virginia and North Carolina's Outer Banks will still pay roaming charges when they make calls while in those areas, but at a reduced rate, Ussery said.
In all cases, callers will still have to pay separate long-distance charges when they're applicable - for instance, if they're calling to New York or Los Angeles.
Neither Sprint nor Mobilnet disclose how many customers they have in Hampton Roads. But if their market shares run at about the national average, they have more than 125,000 local subscribers combined.
``Oh, give me a phone on the road without roam.''
So goes the sad song of many a cellular-phone user when traveling beyond his or her local calling territory.
But GTE Corp.'s Mobilnet cellular subsidiary is trying to change that tune.
Without fanfare on Jan. 1, the phone company combined Richmond and Hampton Roads into a single local calling territory. And it eliminated or cut roaming charges for customers who make calls while traveling from one part of the state to another.
Mobilnet kept the changes quiet until this week, when it rolled out a publicity campaign. ``We wanted to work out all of the bugs in the system,'' said Carla Ussery, the company's Hampton Roads general manager.
She said the changes will significantly cut charges for many local customers. She conceded that the move also will help simplify a confusing rate system that might prove to be a liability as cellular carriers like Mobilnet are faced with several new wireless phone competitors in the next few years.
Mobilnet and Sprint Cellular Co., Hampton Roads' two cellular carriers, will be joined by as many as five new competitors offering cellular-like services as early as next year. The new competition is possible because of the Federal Communications Commission's auction of licenses for cellular-like personal communications services.
AT&T Corp. and a group of regional phone companies that includes Bell Atlantic Corp. already have snapped up licenses to compete in Hampton Roads and several other big chunks of the state. More auctions are planned or are under way.
``Certainly, we're not oblivious to the fact that we're going to have some new competitors in the marketplace,'' Ussery said.
It's not clear whether Sprint Cellular will match Mobilnet's latest moves. Sprint has a special discount offer of its own under way that offers 50 percent savings on per-minute charges, monthly service fees and activation fees.
Ussery said Mobilnet has a program similar to its Virginia offering in Texas. Under its so-called ``SuperSystem'' in Virginia, Hampton Roads customers in seven of the company's nine rate plans will have Richmond added to their local calling area at no additional charge. These customers' monthly service fees range from $39.95 to $279.95.
In addition, these same customers will be able to travel to most of the rest of the state, including Roanoke, Lynchburg, Charlottesville and Bristol, and make cellular calls without having to pay roaming charges. Ussery said such charges start at about $4 a day and increase by about $1 a minute.
Hampton Roads customers traveling to Northern Virginia and North Carolina's Outer Banks will still pay roaming charges when they make calls while in those areas, but at a reduced rate, Ussery said.
In all cases, callers will still have to pay separate long-distance charges when they're applicable - for instance, if they're calling to New York or Los Angeles.
Neither Sprint nor Mobilnet disclose how many customers they have in Hampton Roads. But if their market shares run at about the national average, they have more than 125,000 local subscribers combined. ILLUSTRATION: Color drawing
[cellular phone]
KEYWORDS: CELLULAR PHONE<
by CNB