Home Is Where the Coverage Is

How far from home can you wander before incurring long-distance charges to call back there via your wireless phone?

CenturyTel

Total Hold Time: 30 seconds

Transfer/IVR Layers: 2

CSR: Thank you for calling Century-Tel. This is (name). How can I help you?

WR: My home area is Mississippi. If I go to Seattle, can I call home to Mississippi free of charge?

CSR: You would be roaming. So if you called home to Mississippi, you would be billed a roaming charge.

WR: Even to check my voice mail?

CSR: Yes, because you're roaming outside a CenturyTel market, and you're pulling off of towers other than CenturyTel towers.

WR: Do you have a plan with more coverage areas?

CSR: We don't have a plan that covers Seattle. We have a regional plan in Mississippi that covers five states. It covers Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee and Alabama.

Qwest Wireless

Total Hold Time: 10 seconds

Transfer/IVR Layers: 1

CSR: Thanks for calling Qwest Wireless. My name is (name).

WR: I live in Denver. I'm planning to take a couple of trips in the next few months. If I purchased your service, could I make free calls back to Florida?

CSR: It would be long distance and roaming because we don't have any coverage in Florida. If you had the wireless phone with you in Florida and used it to call anywhere, it's going to be long distance and roaming.

WR: I know some of the companies offer service with no long-distance charges. Do you have that?

CSR: The only kind of charge for long distance is if you're out of your calling area completely. So if your home coverage area is Colorado, and you go to Florida, it's always going to be charged.

WR: Even if I'm just checking my voice mail?

CSR: If you check your voice mail, you're using minutes to do that.

WR: But you'd also add long-distance and roaming charges?

CSR: Yes, if you were physically outside the coverage area. Always think about where you are physically. Say your home coverage area is in Denver, and you go to Phoenix, which is another Qwest coverage area. Then you're fine. You can make your long-distance phone calls free of charge, do the same things you would be able to do in Denver, because it's a coverage area. But if you're physically outside a coverage area, it's going to be roaming and long distance.

Alltel

Total Hold Time: 1 minute

Transfer/IVR Layers: 2

Sales Rep: Thanks for calling Alltel. This is (name). May I help you?

WR: I live in Alabama. If I was visiting Kansas City, would I be able to call home for free using your service?

SR: We do have plans that will cover the whole United States. They start at $39.95 for 200 minutes, $49.95 for 350 minutes, and it goes up from there. Basically, what it does is anywhere in the United States, you don't receive any roaming or long-distance charges.

WR: Thanks. I guess that's all I need to know.

SR: That's called our Total Freedom Plan. Do you want to hear more about it?

WR: Sure.

SR: Let me pull that up.

(20-secondpause)

Total Freedom starts out at $39.95, you get 200 anytime minutes; for $49.95, you get 350 anytime minutes; for $69.95, you get 600 minutes. With any of those plans, we're offering a free Nokia 5185i. There is a $25 activation fee with any new activation, and there would be a 1-year contract with a free phone. As far as coverage across the United States, we probably do better than 90% of the other companies. We cover the complete United States, and I think there's only one other company that does that.

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Where Is Home?

With national or regional coverage plans that include no roaming or long-distance charges, home can be a confusing word. The bottom line is: As long as the customers are within a carrier's declared coverage area, they're home. If they're out of the coverage area, it costs to call back there.