THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, November 11, 1996 TAG: 9611090749
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 13 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SERIES: THE COMMUNICATIONS FREE-FOR-ALL
SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 62 lines
In Washington, where PCS made its U.S. debut, they call it ``telecommunications in a box.''
It's because of the unusual way the PCS provider there, Sprint Spectrum L.P., has been marketing the service: more like a consumer-electronics product than a phone service.
The first PCS provider in Hampton Roads, PrimeCo Personal Communications, won't reveal any details of its planned offering until Tuesday. But it and the current cellular providers in Hampton Roads are sure to borrow a lot of Sprint Spectrum's techniques.
So let's look at how that company's Washington-area service works.
The first thing that's different is how you sign up for the service.
You go into a Wal-Mart or Circuit City and choose a PCS phone from an open display case. You take it to the checkout counter. And you pay for it: an average of about $200.
That's a lot more than the $25 or $30 that cellular carriers have typically charged for their phones the last few years. But Sprint Spectrum tells its customers that by not subsidizing phone purchases, it can offer lower prices on monthly service. It says that will actually benefit its customers more in the long run.
Rates start at $15 a month, and Sprint Spectrum claims its plans range from 10 to 40 percent less than its cellular competitors'.
To activate the service, you remove the phone from its shrink-wrapped box and call an 800 number. A customer-service rep helps you choose a plan. Then you pay as you go. In a move that cellular carriers like GTE Mobilnet are now scrambling to copy, Sprint Spectrum requires no long-term contract.
If you don't like the service, you take the phone back. Sprint Spectrum offers a 60-day money-back guarantee.
For $15 a month, you get 15 minutes of airtime anytime, a built-in answering machine, numeric paging and Caller ID. Additional airtime is 31 cents a minute.
The deluxe package, at $150 a month, allows 10 hours of airtime anytime and all the same features, plus call waiting. Additional airtime is as low as 10 cents a minute.
One unique and popular feature of all the pricing plans is that the first minute of every incoming call is free. That's unheard of in cellular.
Sprint Spectrum officials say this feature alone has dramatically changed the way people utilize their service.
They use it more like a regular phone, talking on it throughout the day, says marketing director Partho Choudhury.
In fact, Sprint Spectrum's research shows that its customers give out their PCS number to an average of 26 other people. The average cellular customer shares his or her number with only two, Choudhury says.
The Washington area's 911 emergency directors are noticing a big difference, says Anne Schelle, Sprint Spectrum vice president.
``The dispatchers are telling us that when customers call 911 on our phones, they know their numbers,'' she says. ``But cellular customers often don't. It drives the dispatchers batty.'' MEMO: [For a related story, see page 12 of the Business Weekly.] by CNB