Sprint and AT&T add free calling to a list of numbers

Free calling to a select group of numbers will now be offered in contract plans from two more major cell-phone carriers, after Sprint and AT&T this week announced plans with the feature, which is already offered by Verizon and Alltel.

Sprint yesterday added the “Any Mobile, Anytime” feature to its $70 and $90 individual and $130 and $170 family Everything Data plans. The addition allows unlimited free mobile-to-mobile calling on any cell network. The plans [PDF] also come with 450 to 3,000 anytime minutes, which should more than cover calls to landline phone numbers.

Sprint’s move followed by a day an AT&T announcement that on September 20, it will add an “A-List” feature to its wireless plans that will allow unlimited free anytime, any-network calling to up to five designated domestic cell or landline phone numbers on individual national plans costing $60 or more per month and up to 10 designated domestic numbers on Family Talk plans costing $90 or more per month.

The Sprint and AT&T plans are essentially copy-cats of Verizon’s “Friends & Family” feature, which Verizon in turn copied from Alltel’s “My Circle” feature after it acquired that carrier in January.

Free calls to designated numbers is a valuable feature. “We find that the average caller uses 65 percent of his minutes with calls to and from the same five people,” says Samir Kothari, co-founder and vice president of products at www.Billshrink.com, which collects cellular minute usage information from consumers and compares plans from the big four contract carriers.

If you do sign on for a designated-number list with AT&T and Verizon, we suggest populating it with frequently-called land-line and cell numbers that are not in your own cellular service’s network. The reason: Both carriers offer free and unlimited in-network mobile-to-mobile calls on their national plans.

This week’s moves suggest that the contract carriers may begin fighting harder in the ongoing cellular price war, driven mostly by low-priced prepaid plans that offer unlimited calling.

At $45 or $50, the unlimited voice-calling plans from upstart prepaid carriers Boost, StraightTalk, and Virgin remain cheaper than the unlimited plans of the major carriers, even after this week’s announcements.

But prepaid service isn’t for everyone, in part because of some pricing pitfalls and other gotchas. —Jeff Blyskal

Comments

[Chase Winters]

I will never sign a contract to use a phone again.

Never!

I'm very happy with Straight Talk and am impressed with their coverage on Verizon.

To me, the $30 - 1,000 minutes, 1,000 texts deal is unbeatable. I travel a lot and have never had a problem.

When I had Metro POS, it worked fine in town but as soon as I got outside the city, fuhgeddaboutit!

You get what you pay for, or in the case of Straight Talk, MORE than you pay for!

[hdmi cable]

I'm a new Sprint user (from AT&T) and I've gotta say I've had nothing but problems from Sprint. Constantly dropping calls, the statements have said I owe more than I should about 75% of the time, I receive SOME text messages occasionally I receive other a few hours later.
Just problem after problem to the point where I called customer service and the representative and I went through it all, she called her manager who then gave me a free phone upgrade and a month half off. After 2 months the problems were right back.
Can't wait til my 2 years are up! I'm going right back to AT&T. I definitely don't mind paying a bit more for reliability.

[LaurenW]

When I compare this plan with my Straight Talk unlimited plan there is really no comparison. Straight Talk is so much cheaper at $45/month for unlimited talk,texts and 30mb of data and it runs on Verizon's network which is nationwide. There are no roaming charges or overages and I can really call anyone on any phone anywhere in America as often as I like, now that is the true meaning of unlimited!

[Mike]

Just to set the record straight..
Alltel's My Circle was introduced in April 2006..
Next was T-Mobile's myFaves, introduced in October 2006.
The other carriers have all fallen in line since then. T-Mobile's myFaves program should have been mentioned here, as its one of the big 4 carriers. Also, it should be noted that the myFaves individual plans start at $39.99 a month -- the lowest price of all the carriers, including AT&T and Sprint now -- with unlimited calling to 5 people on any network. I have a friend who racked up over 6,000 minutes one month on that exact 39.99 myFaves plan and only used 200 anytime minutes. THATS a bargain worth mentioning, eh editor?

[Brian]

Sprint's plan is superior to both Verizon and AT&T by offering free cell to cell calls with no limit on a 'friends and family' call list. Any cell phone, anytime. Sprint's plan is only constrained to free cell to cell riding on the Sprint/Nextel network. If your call roams to the destination carrier's network, then you start using your minutes. More info here:

http://anymobileanytime.sprint.com/