Consumer Action - AT&T Wireless Phone Education Partnership Choosing a wireless service provider...

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Consumer Action - AT&T Wireless Phone Education Partnership

Choosing a wireless service provider

Take a ‘cell assessment’Making a commitment

Avoid surprises in your wireless billPrevent theft and fraud

Welcome

• Why are you here?

• To learn how to choose the best wireless plan and avoid potential pitfalls.

What you will learn:

• Choosing the best plan• Cellular industry vocabulary• Prepaid vs. Monthly Wireless plans • Choosing the right phone for the plan• Reading wireless bills

What’s in your folder?

• Brochure• Backgrounder guide• Slides in handout form• Activities• Sample billing statement• Quiz• Order form for free multilingual

materials

Expectations Activity

• Your name• Your agency & title• What you hope to get out of this

seminar today

Available plans

• Local• Roaming• Regional • National• International

Local Plans

• Allow calls within a metropolitan area or portions of a state without long distance charges

Roaming

• Making calls outside of the carrier’s network

• Higher per minute charges with some plans

Regional plans

• Users can make calls within a state or group of states without any long distance or roaming fees

National plans

• Often called nationwide plans• Users can make calls within the U.S.• No long distance or roaming charges

*Remember to clarify all plan details with your carrier in advance

International plans

• May provide better deals to other countries

• Prepaid plans also offer overseas calling options

What to ask?

• What type of questions should you ask when comparing calling plans?

What to consider?

• Basic monthly charge• Anytime minutes• Free nights & weekend minutes• Per minute rate if exceeded• Long distance charge• Roaming charges• Peak vs. off peak hours• Text messages / Internet access• Contract issues

Family plans

• What is a family plan?

• Does anyone have a family plan?

Family Plans

• A less expensive way to add multiple phones and services to one account

• Share minutes• Difficult to control shared minutes

Family plan features

• Two or more cell phones share one bucket of minutes

• Bucket of minutes is an industry term for an allotment, usually monthly

• Plans offer buckets of 250, 500, 700 or 1000 minutes per month

Family plan features

• With some plans, unused minutes roll over to the next month

• Outgoing & incoming calls and toll free calls will use bucket minutes

• Buy enough minutes to cover calling pattern

• Going over minutes = 40 cents/min

Comparison sites

• www.point.com• www.myrateplan.com• www.letstalk.com• www.wirefly.com• www.consumerreports.org (fee)

What do you think?

• Are all cell phones the same?• What is free mobile to mobile?• Can you estimate your monthly usage?

How?• Can you control incoming calls?• Do U.S. cell phones work overseas?

• See you in 15 minutes!

Activity - 15 minutes

• Break into small groups• Choosing a wireless service activity (page

9 in training curriculum)

• Choose a spokesperson• Choose a recorder• Be ready to share findings

Cost of service

• First bill can be higher than normal due to activation fee

• Pro-rating of charges can increase your bill when changing plans or adding new features

• Request an estimate• Final charges include taxes/surcharges and will

be higher than calling plan fee

Carriers may allow

• Checking minutes

• Checking balance

Data Service

• What is data service?

Data Service

• Downloading photos• Checking e-mail• Reading news headlines• Text messaging• Usually billed by kilobytes

Billing mistakes

• Contact carrier immediately• Take notes on your conversation• Request an e-mail confirmation

Activity

• Break into small groups• Review Laura Fish’s wireless bill• Answer the questions on page 12• Choose a spokesperson• Choose a recorder• Be ready to share findings

Choosing a phone

• How many people here have a cell phone?

• Family members?• What kind of cell phone do you have &

Types of phones

• Flip up & ‘candy bar’ phones• PDAs - Personal digital assistants• Smart phones• Retractable antenna• Ringer levels / vibrate settings• Separate volume controls

Making a choice

• Accepting a free phone• Blocking the purchase of ring tones• Rebate offers• Phone replacement insurance

Thank you!

• Did we meet your expectations?• If you were facilitating this workshop

tomorrow or next week, what information would you need to be effective?

• Other comments?

Contact us

• Consumer Action - 1.800.999.7981

• www.consumer-action.org

Consumer Action - AT&T Wireless Phone Education Partnership Choosing a wireless service provider...

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