Prepaid Pricing Complexities

Do your customers comparison-shop between prepaid service and regular wireless service? The following wireless-service providers try to explain the reasoning behind the prepaid pricing issue.

Sol Communications
Total Hold Time: 1 minute
Transfers/IVR Layers: 0

CSR: Thank you for calling Sol Communications.

WR: I want to find out more about prepaid service.

CSR: With our prepaid, you have a $10, $25, $50 or $100 calling card, and you have up to two months to use your minutes.

WR: What advantages does prepaid offer?

CSR: There's no activation or connection fee, and you don't get a statement. You budget your minutes on what you want to spend.

WR: What is the cost per minute?

CSR: It's 20 cents a minute locally, 30 cents a minute long distance anywhere in the United States or 45 cents a minute anywhere in Mexico. The regular plan we have is 3 cents a minute.

WR: Why is it more for prepaid?

CSR: Because that's the option we have. The other one is where you receive a monthly statement upon credit approval and verification.

WR: I heard that prepaid calls take longer to connect and that there are delays with the service. Is that a problem?

CSR: No, it isn't. It's the same network for either prepaid or post-paid. It depends on the area and how you're dialing. It's not going to be bad service just because it's prepaid.

SunCom
Total Hold Time: 0 minutes
Transfers/IVR Layers: 0

CSR: Thank you for calling SunCom, a member of the AT&T Wireless Network.

WR: Why would someone use prepaid minutes vs. regular wireless service?

CSR: The only advantage with prepaid would be that you would never spend more than you want to spend. With prepaid, you get out what you put in.

WR: What is the cost difference?

CSR: It's a 50 cents per minute charge for prepaid service. With regular service, there's a credit check involved. Most people don't want prepaid because of its limitations. And prepaid's on an entirely different network. Outside vendors run it for us, and that's a cost. With prepaid, you can't roam — at all.

WR: Does it matter what time of day you use prepaid minutes?

CSR: It does. Some parts of the day it's a very limited network — like traffic jams. If too many people are trying to operate at the same time, it'll give you a recording, 'Can't place your call at this time. Please try your call again later.' The biggest pet peeve I know our customers have is when someone's phone has a caller-ID-block feature. It won't accept your call.

WR: Why is that?

CSR: Because the system is not set up to penetrate through caller-ID-block features. The network can't even support caller ID itself.

Powertel
Total Hold Time: 1 minute
Transfers/IVR Layers: 1

CSR: Thank you for calling Powertel.

WR: What are the advantages and disadvantages of prepaid service?

CSR: With prepaid, you're not able to roam. Most people who get prepaid are usually just going to be in that area. If you're traveling, you may want to go with a monthly bill service.

WR: Do prepaid minutes expire?

CSR: Right. You have a $10, $20 or $30 card, which is good for 30 days. And we have a $45 card and a $90 card, which are good for 45 days and 90 days.

WR: What is the per-minute cost?

CSR: Our lowest plan is 100 minutes for $20 so the average rate on that is 35 cents a minute. But prepaid is the same. It's 35 cents a minute whether it's a long-distance call or a regular call. It depends on what type of minutes you have. If you have 500 minutes, your overage rate would be 12 cents a minute. With 1,000 minutes, your overage rate would be 10 cents a minute.

WR: Why is prepaid more?

CSR: We know a person with a monthly bill is going to be there. With prepaid, they have the option of being with us one month and being gone the next month.

WR: Do prepaid calls take longer to connect?

CSR: Even with your monthly-bill service, if there are too many people on the network, you're not going to get a connection.

WR: Is prepaid on the same network as regular service?

CSR: It's the same network. It's just that our prepaid system is computerized and sometimes we have to do upgrades to it.

Mystery Caller is Wireless Review's ongoing series of random calls to service providers to determine how a customer might be treated and the accuracy of distributed information.