Newsgroup: it.tlc.telefonia
Titolo: FYI: Sprint Intros Unlimited Weekend Long Distance Calling [ripreso da newsbytes]

Vi inoltro un lancio di agenzia ricevuto oggi da 
clari.net
. Che ne
dite, la concorrenza (in qualsiasi mercato) fa bene al consumatore?
Secondo me si`.
=====================
 
KANSAS CITY, MONTANA, 1998 NOV 5 (NB) -- By Steve Gold, Newsbytes. In
return for signing up to its Unlimited long distance calling plan, 
Sprint has announced it is offering residential users access to as 
many long distance calls as they want to make at the weekend, in 
return for a simple $25 a month surcharge. 
Newsbytes notes that the deal allows residential users to chat for as
long as they wish between midnight on Friday night to 23:59 hours on 
Sunday night. According to Sprint, the special plan further simplifies
long distance calling for millions of families across the US and sets 
a new standard for residential long distance pricing. 
Nor is Sprint cashing in on the deal by charging special rates during
office hours. According to company officials on weekdays, long 
distance calls made under the plan are only a dime a minute around the
clock. 
According to Sprint, the flat rate calls deal also applies to in-state
and intraLATA calls, as well as the "normal" state-to-state calls. As 
a special deal, the firm is extending its weekend "free calls" period 
over the full Thanksgiving holiday period from November 24 to November
29. 
Officials are at pains to stress that the Unlimited plan is not a  
one-time special, but is an ongoing scheme. Tom Weigman, the firm's 
president of consumer services, said that research has shown that 
Saturday and Sunday are the two single highest calling days for 
consumers. 
"Sprint Unlimited meets this trend head-on, going beyond the price-  
per-minute standard of today to introduce a new paradigm in the US 
residential long distance arena -- unlimited, unrestricted calling for
a single flat monthly rate," he explained. 
According to Weigman, Sprint Unlimited gives families the freedom to  
get in touch with friends and loved ones without worrying about how 
long they are on the phone or how much it costs. 
Residential users can sign up for the new program by calling  
1-800-PIN-DROP or by visiting 
http://www.sprint.com/unlimited
 . 
Newsbytes notes that a maximum of two residential lines per household
can be signed up to the program, which is available to customers in 
the US mainland, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. 
According to Jeffrey Kagan, the telecommunications analyst and author,
the long distance deal has its parallels with the all-you-can-eat-for-
a-flat-rate arrangements that many Internet service providers (ISPs) 
offer their customers. 
"It was only a matter of time. Years ago, smaller players offered flat
rate calling but ran into problems when their capacity was reached and
customers got lots of busy signals trying to make calls," he noted. 
According to Kagan, if the big long distance companies do this, he  
surmises that the busy circuits would not be a problem. 
"This is further evidence of the creativity in marketing needed to  
thrive in today's long distance wars. I'd guess this might be a test 
balloon for Sprint. If it's successful, they might consider a flat 
rate for all times, not just weekends," he said. 
Kagan warned that Sprint will have to tread carefully with its new  
calling plan. 
"Calling behavior is based on pricing models. Change the models and  
you change the behavior and you wouldn't want to get a nasty surprise 
and have it cost you money," he said. 
Reported by Newsbytes News Network, 
http://www.newsbytes.com
 .  
 
--
replies to 
lco...@systemy.it
, flames to /dev/null

dite, la concorrenza (in qualsiasi mercato) fa bene al consumatore?
Forse per quanto riguarda i prezzi ... forse, di sicuro NON per la
chiarezza delle stesse tariffe (soprattutto in mercati "affollati"
le compagnie campano proprio su questo, sulla confusione e sulla
ignoranza dei potenziali clienti) ne' tanto meno per la qualita' del 
servizio finale, e le compagnie americane ne sono l'esempio piu' 
banale, sono loro ad avere inventato operazioni tipo lo slamming
(cambio del long distance carrier preselezionato ad insaputa dello
utente) o il cramming (addebito di servizi mai richiesti), frutto
solo della concorrenza sfrenata del mercato USA.
Comunque non e' da adesso che esistono le long distance calls a
tariffa flat : gia' da qualche mese Sprint Canada le offre ai propri
utenti e cosi' pure da quasi un anno Cable & Wireless Communications 
(ex Mercury) in UK, che fa pagare fino ad un massimo di 50 pence tutte 
le chiamate regionali e nazionali fatte nel giorno di sabato.
Ovviamente ci smenano entrambe, visto che ogni chiamata che esce dalla 
loro rete viene tassata a tempo dal carrier di transito.