Friday, September 11, 2009

AT&T and Sprint Add More Free Calls

It's almost too little too late. AT&T announced Wednesday they will be adding a "Calling Circle" plan called the "A-List" that allows free calls to 5 numbers of your choice, wireless or landline. The next day Sprint started offering a mobile to mobile plan to any other wireless customer on any US network called "Any Mobile, Anytime".

AT&T comes to the dance rather late as Verizon Wireless announced their Calling Circle plan last spring and T-mobile has had theirs much longer. Coincidentally, both AT&T and Verizon's step into the calling circle world comes on the heels of each company's upcoming acquisition of their respective parts of the Alltel network with the implication of continuing Alltel's successful "My Circle" plan. AT&T does need to offer some carrots to keep their slice of Alltel customers from jumping ship.

Over at Sprint, we give them credit for coming up with something new with an "all-carrier" mobile to mobile feature. However, it requires a minimum $70 Sprint plan, which puts them perilously close to their Unlimited voice plan at $80.

These are small steps for these carriers, but it does keep the competition ball rolling. We already expect Atlantic Tele-Network to be competitive with their part of Alltel. It's cool to see Alltel having such an influence on the industry on their way to the grave.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

These are interesting plans but forcing consumers to accept bundled data into the plan is what is keeping me away. If I needed data and voice I would look to one of the prepay offerings from Page Plus or Staright Talk. These offer much more flexibility and lower prices while operating on the excellent Verizon network. Only downside is the limited selection of quality phones.