Leading the charge: WirelessNorth unveils flat-rate offering

WirelessNorth is testing a new pricing structure for service on its digital wireless networks in Minnesota and North Dakota that could help reshape customers' perception of wireless.

The carrier, which holds licenses in the C, D, E and F block PCS spectrum, is offering customers unlimited minutes of use for $75 a month in an effort to position its service as a landline alternative. That shift is something larger wireless operators with near-national footprints have long discussed but have not delivered.

"Our intent has always been to move into a more wireless local loop-type service," said Dan Richards, director of sales and marketing at WirelessNorth. "This isn't cellular-pricing isn't the same, roaming isn't the same and handset issues aren't the same."

The carrier, which operates a code division multiple access network, is offering two rate structures, one more cellular-like and one designed as a wireline alternative. Zones have been established for flat-rate users, and calls outside a customer's home zone are charged at 25 cents a minute. All the features available on its mobility offering are included in the flat-rate service, and customers have the option of purchasing a dual-mode phone to allow for analog roaming.

"By structuring the rate package differently and explaining it the way we do-even comparing it against our own high-mobility rate structure-people get it," Richards said. "It has really made a difference."

The carrier has installed 17 cell sites in the region, which serves about 50 to 60 pops per square mile. There are eight sites in Fargo, N.D., alone, an area where WirelessNorth installed only one cell for its cellular system.

"It's built for capacity and penetration," Richards said. "That's part of what we think makes for a successful wireless operation."

At the Air Force base in Grand Forks, N.D., WirelessNorth is segregating one cell site and establishing a dedicated wireless system for the base, Richards said. Elsewhere in Grand Forks, many people are still displaced from their homes as a result of recent flooding, so the carrier is hoping the unlimited package will appeal to them as a landline alternative.

WirelessNorth is considering a wireless data offering as well, but it will likely not be part of the flat-rate pricing structure because of the capacity issues that would pose, Richards said. The carrier sees wide-open data transmission as something better suited for wireline, he said.

"If we look to do a data offering, we'll probably structure it as a different product offering," Richards said. "The last thing I want to see is people surfing the Internet on an unlimited package. Our message is, 'Use us for voice and use the landline for data.'"

WirelessNorth plans to position the flat-rate structure as a promotional offering, both to convey a sense of urgency and to allow the carrier to suspend or discontinue the service if the numbers don't support it, Richards said.

"The only way we can get a good sense of what will happen is to do it," he said.

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