Verizon's 'Friends & Family' plan offers less for more
Now that Verizon Wireless has swallowed Alltel, Alltel customers are on the edge of their seats waiting to see how the carrier will integrate its new minion. Naturally, the future of Alltel's popular "My Circle" plan is a top concern--who wouldn't like an option for unlimited calling for up to 10 numbers? But if Verizon's "Friends & Family" announcement is a sign of how the integration will proceed, then I fear for my Alltel friends.
On Wednesday, Verizon unveiled a new My Circle-esque option that will allow unlimited calling to a select group of numbers, even landlines. Starting February 15, "Friends & Family" (does anyone else think of MCI?) will give single line users up to 5 numbers and family line users up to 10 numbers.
As with My Circle, you'll be able to call your friends and family members as often as you'd like without deducting minutes from your monthly allowance. Sound good? Well, in a way it is convenient, but a comparison with Alltel's MyCircle shows that Friends & Family is more expensive.
To be eligible for the plan, Verizon customers on a single line must have a minimum plan of $59.99 per month for 900 anytime minutes. Yet, Verizon's cheapest single plan offers 450 anytime minutes for $39.99. Family users must have a minimum plan of $89.99 per month for 1,400 anytime minutes, which leaves out the cheapest family plan of $69.99 per month for 700 anytime minutes.
On the other hand, Alltel's cheapest plan for five My Circle contacts is $49.99 per month for 750 anytime minutes. What's more, for $59.99 per month, Alltel users get 10 My Circle contacts. It's a similar situation with family plans. The cheapest family plan is $84.99 per month for 1,000 anytime minutes and 10 My Circle members.
Though it's worth noting that Friends & Family doesn't require a surcharge, it's disappointing that Verizon isn't matching Alltel's My Circle. Though getting less for more may be fine for Verizon customers who have never had such an option, it won't sit well for Alltel folks if they're forced to switch over. Lets hope that won't be the case. For now, Verizon says that won't be the case. But things can change.
Kent German is a senior editor for cell phone reviews at CNET. When he's not testing the newest handsets on the market, he's blogging about cell phone news for Crave. In his On Call column, he answers reader questions and gives his take on the rapidly changing mobile industry. E-mail Kent. 
Cuz I really really really beg to differ... in fact, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say you pulled that one out of your butt.
Example... The cheapest Verizon basic friends and family plan is 1400 minutes, 10 "friends" (2 lines) for 89.99. Alltel?s comparable plan is 1400 min, 10 MyCircle, 79.99 for the first line and 9.99 for line 2.... 89.98!!
The 84.99 1000 minute, 10 MyCircle, 1000 text for two lines is in fact a great Alltel plan that none of the competition can compare to.. HOWEVER it is a Promotional plan... which means that it was not going to last forever anyway...
On the flip side... Verizon offers "Select" plans which include unlimited text? this is something that Alltel does not offer (except for the $140 promo plan? again? a promotion!). These plans start out at 119.99 for two lines and the same minutes and features as the above noted plan (1400 min, 10 friends and family)... to have unlimited text on the comparable Alltel plan you would be adding 19.99 PER LINE ending in a final cost of 129.96.... So Verizon is ACTUALLY CHEAPER!!
Now with that being said... yes they are not offering lower plans with one or five MyCircle options nor are they offering the higher plans with 20 MyCircle... but as GoneWireless stated previously... Alltel didn?t start MyCircle like that either... that change just came to Alltel in the recent few years!!
As for the stand alone plans... I do agree that they should give them the option for 10 numbers as well, but in my experience with Alltel Customers.... a majority of them can only come up with 5 numbers to begin with.... And Verizon offering at least 5 keeps our customers from switching to T-Mobile (yuck!!)
And let?s not forget... again as stated before... Verizon has a HUGE network of 80 million plus.... a good amount of the people that are on peoples MyCircle ARE Verizon customers :o)
No, Alltel's base plans do not offer SMS/MMS included. However, let's crunch numbers on VZW's big fat bundle versus Alltel's a la carte offerings, shall we?
$79.99 on VZW gets you 900 minutes, Mobile to Mobile, Nights & Weekends, unlimited SMS/MMS and 5 Friends and Family numbers--and almost two bucks a megabyte for your web browsing.
$59.99 on Alltel gets you 900 minutes, Mobile to Mobile, NIghts & Weekends, and 10 My Circle numbers, plus another $19.99 gets you the Connect Pack 3 offering which gives you unlimited SMS/MMS, Mobile Web access, and unlimited data minutes for a grand total of $79.98.
Want those unlimited data minutes? On VZW, that'll be a "Connect" plan, and $89.99 for the same 900 minutes, and still only 5 Friends and Family numbers.
Drinketh not the VZW koolaid. Just because their base plan includes more does not mean their competitor's offer of a smaller plan and more feature choices isn't the better deal.
M2M is not going to disappear. U are adding to alltel customers free calling 67 -69 million to free calling on network. . Like most have said here be straight about it. It makes since for single plans for 5 because verizon does have the unlimited plan for 99$(ALLTEL DIDN"T) so there is only one plan between the unlimited and the $59 plan . if u need more than the 900 mins u can go up to 1350 for $20. other wise they offer the unlimited plan for $99. it would put a lot of pressure on the unlimited plan if they went to 10# on higher plan. To me this beats the roll over mins that ATT has hands down. I added 9 people for m2m from alltel that i had so i didnt have to put them on my family and friends. Everybody should enjoy this feature specially since it comes from the biggest netowork 80 million strong.Its what they needed as the rest offer either free incoming calls. 7pm nights or rollover. I really thik this will make the NETWORK grow from here now. I don't think more than 1 percent of alltel customers will leave with this feature avaiable. It was a bigg issues with them though. A lot of them wre goN in and upgrading there contracts so they could keep this feature till contract was up anyway.
- by RegalDeath September 10, 2009 5:53 PM PDT
- ok hope someone see this cause what i'm going to say will blow your mind My Circle let you text people for free on other net works OMG when this family and friends crap you don't OMG again wow what is this so you think its the same no were close ok you save minutes but everyone is textin now days were is unlimited textin on VERIZON none at all wow AMAZING not done yet alltel had a choice of $22 for unlimited textin what no way were are they PLEASE COME BACK AND SAVE US MONEY WE'RE BEGGING YOU just simply begging you look at all these dudes on verizon OMG 80 million no impresive there is 120 million playing world of warcraft online ok so were is your 120 million oh but wait 120 million in the USA omg again this is simply amazing all those people on the game ok say about 5 mil them have alltel 25 mil with sprint 25 mil virgin mobile 30 mil verizon and the rest on the others OMG ok so that 7 mil with lives on Alltel and saving more money then you have 30 mil no life on verizon and 50mil who is probably still waisting their lives in verizon not done yet tho Verizon were is your free Friends&Family textin i had a $200 phone bill cause of textin and i can't put people on Friends&Family suspecting it not to cost ok wait and 89.99 at verizon to alltel's 89.98 ain't it true tho a penny saved is a penny earned expecially in this day in time come on GO LOWER VERIZON only reason i'm still workin with you is cause i have reception ok
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