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Pastimes : Home on the range where the buffalo roam -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (9846)	11/19/2002 1:12:55 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 13815

Priced to Sell WIRELESS REPORT By Matthew Maier business2.com When ailing telecoms started rolling out their high-speed data networks last year, they hoped consumers would intuitively realize the value of mobile access to corporate data and the wireless Internet, and -- with a little prompting -- start signing up for the new service in droves. After all, the new networks offer data speeds in excess of 50 kilobits per second -- which means that after years of hype, carriers can deliver on the promise of turning wireless phones and PDAs into true mobile data platforms. But consumers haven't picked up on the new services. What turned them off were the complicated pricing schemes. Rather than offering fixed-fee, unlimited-data plans like those in Europe and Asia, U.S. carriers started by pricing consumers' plans according to how much data they downloaded. Cingular Wireless still does this; its customers pay a monthly fee of $7 to download 1 megabyte of data, or up to $49 for 13MB. Such a system forces consumers to monitor how much time they spend online -- and could lead to huge bills for customers unaware of how much data they transfer every time they look up a stock quote or access a website. Recently, though, carriers such as Sprint PCS have started simplifying their pricing. Following the lead of T-Mobile, which recently rolled out a flat $40-per-month data package for its new Sidekick device, Sprint PCS now offers customers on its third-generation (3G) data networks unlimited access for $10 a month. "We quickly learned that we were not in the business of educating consumers about what a bit or a byte was," says Sprint PCS spokesman Dan Willinsky. "Customers were confused, so we went with a pricing structure that was much easier for them to understand." Granted, most people in the United States still use their mobile phones exclusively to make phone calls, but because new models feature games, built-in cameras, and color screens, that's starting to change, albeit slowly. Carriers are already seeing a jump in data usage as a result of customers downloading personalized ring tones and graphics. The newer, simplified pricing plans can only help. What's most surprising about this trend is that it took so long to arrive. Charging consumers on a per-MB basis was a poorly conceived strategy at best, and predatory at worst. After all, customers aren't all that familiar with wireless data technology, so charging them for every site they visit or movie time they check is certain to scare them away. There's no guarantee that everyone will now rush out and buy a data-enabled wireless phone, but at least people considering it won't be so baffled by the pricing plans.