Making an informed choice

The recent long-distance pricing war demonstrates how carriers can and will move at warp speed to stay competitive. Press wires were flooded with announcements as small and large providers made their best pricing offers. The activity was tough for carriers and the press to keep up with and confusing to customers.

A new Web site that launched Sept. 20 is aiming to clear up the confusion. Decide.com lets customers identify, compare and purchase a range of telecom products and services based on how they will use them.

"Basically, our objective is to help consumers get on the right plan for cellular, PCS, long-distance and prepaid calling cards," said Robert Stravitz, director of brand management for Decide.com.

The site is intended to be unbiased and comprehensive, representing the calling plans and products of every carrier, said Steve Gaynor, vice president of business development for Decide.com. Pricing data is updated weekly at least. Carriers are not allowed to advertise on the site or pay for special placement or treatment, Gaynor said. "Everything is presented in an equal fashion. Everybody gets a fair shot."

Once at the site, consumers can view and purchase cellular phones. They also are invited to enter information about their usage habits to find the long-distance or wireless pricing packages that best fits them.

Decide.com sells the service and equipment for all carriers and re-ceives a commission for everything it sells.

For wireless, consumers also can hear the quality they will get from various points throughout the country with a specific brand of phone.

The service, called Wireless Test Drive, is a compilation of calls that have been made from vans equipped with cellular phones from each major carrier in the market. Calls are placed every 90 to 100 seconds as drivers pass through an area, Stravitz said.

In Los Angeles, for example, drivers traveled 9000 miles and placed 30,000 test calls. "It's a pretty robust methodology, inclusive and extensive," he said.

Snippets of the calls are made available on the site, and users can access them through a map interface. The service lets consumers decide if the quality in a specific area is good enough for their purposes.

Although some users don't mind a little static, others who are trading stocks over the phone want a clear connection to get the words "buy" and "sell" across the airwaves, Stravitz said.

Consumers generally put wireless call quality at the top of their list when deciding on a carrier, Gaynor said. "All the carriers are hitting roughly the same price points and offering similar services, but what's different is the network and the quality of the network," he said. "Quality is often different in different places. Consumers want to know that."

The Wireless Test Drive is a differentiating factor for Decide.com compared with competing Web sites Point.com and BuyPhone.com, which offer customers comparisons on wireless pricing plans, said Blaine Mathieu, a senior analyst with Dataquest.

Decide.com also stands out because it asks users lifestyle questions and then presents them with a list of 10 possible plans that fit, he added. The other sites present users with a long list of options and scale down choices as users pick from the list.

Decide.com's method is "a bit more of an intuitive process," Mathieu said.

Although Mathieu said he hasn't researched Decide.com's claim of being comprehensive and unbiased, he said for the business' sake, it had better be true. "The ultimate success of their program will depend on if consumers truly perceive that they are an unbiased intermediary between consumers and the marketplace."