THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 7, 1997 TAG: 9701070215
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, staff writer
LENGTH: 60 lines
360 Communications Co. on Monday one-upped its local competitors in the race to grab mobile phone customers with a new plan that sharply cuts roaming charges. It also greatly expanded the local calling territory for its Hampton Roads customers to cover most of Virginia.
360 and its local head-on rival, GTE Mobilnet, have been cutting rates and expanding calling areas over the past year to thwart the ambitions of a raft of new wireless competitors.
Last month, PrimeCo Personal Communications entered Hampton Roads with a new cellular-like service. In mid-1997, AT&T Corp. plans to launch a similar service locally. Another four or five such companies could enter Hampton Roads over the next several years.
All this wrangling for market share has been a boon for mobile phone users. Using a phone from 360, for example, it's now possible to drive almost anywhere in the state and call home to Hampton Roads at rates as low as 10 cents a minute. A one-minute cell phone call from places like Charlottesville or Roanoke could have cost several dollars only a year ago.
GTE Mobilnet has led much of the rate-cutting. But 360 has become more aggressive in recent months.
``Our goal is to simplify all aspects of the way we're doing things,'' said Bob Sage, mid-Atlantic marketing manager for 360.
The latest 360 moves in Hampton Roads include:
Eliminating all daily surcharges for calls when roaming beyond the local calling area. Those surcharges have typically run $3 a day and have been in addition to separate per-minute roaming fees that typically run 99 cents per minute.
Establishing a new mid-Atlantic calling territory within which all metered roaming fees will be 49 cents a minute. This territory will include the Washington area, including Northern Virginia, plus the entire states of Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina.
Extending Hampton Roads users' local calling area to include all of central and southwestern Virginia and much of the Blue Ridge. New cities added to the local calling area, which now covers 70 percent of Virginia, include Charlottesville, Danville, Lynchburg, Martinsville and Roanoke.
Tom Dreyer, acting Hampton Roads general manager for GTE Mobilnet, said his company may make further concessions to customers as well. GTE still charges the $3-a-day roaming surcharge. Within its mid-Atlantic calling territory, additional roaming fees run 55 cents a minute - 6 cents higher than 360's per-minute rate. And GTE's mid-Atlantic calling region is smaller: most of North Carolina and Tennessee and portions of Maryland and West Virginia.
Dreyer said GTE still has an advantage over 360 in local calling. For most of its Hampton Roads cellular customers, GTE's local calling area includes the entire state of Virginia, he noted.
PrimeCo's local calling area goes as far west as Richmond. It has service in 14 other metropolitan areas in the United States. People traveling to those areas from Hampton Roads pay no roaming fees.
In all the providers' cases, additional long-distance telephone charges may apply. And all the plans may include some other restrictions.
MEMO: Staff writer Dave Mayfield can be reached at 446-2270 or by e-mail
at dmay(AT)infi.net