cellphonesaretools said:
I'm not saying that Verizon is better than Sprint, because I believe most Sprint-Nextel plans begin Unlimited Minutes at 7PM, which of course beats the pants off Verizon's which begin at 9PM...
...That said, I do believe Sprint-Nextel is being illogical, and perhaps a bit unfair, by charging me for the entire duration of a call against my Anytime Minutes for a call begun at 5:55 PM, when on top of my regular plan I am paying an additional $10/mo/line to have my Unlimited Minutes begin at 6PM.

Maybe it's just me, but these two statements seem to be at odds with one another. If you truly beleve that Sprint's N&W minutes are way better, then what's the problem? How is it unfair tha Sprint charges your anytime minutes for an entire call placed before 6:00 pm when Verizon does the exact same thing? Even if you paid Verizon an additional $10 per month, they would still charge your bucket of minutes for the entire call because thy have no plans that start before 9:00 pm. To me, the illogical part is not waiting five more minutes to place a free call.

cellphonesaretools said:

RE: "Is someone really trying to say that Verizon's 2003 inspired N&W minutes are somehow better? Really? Who do you call after 9:00 pm?" (gloopey1)
>>> I did not say that Verizon's 9 PM is better than Sprint's 7PM. I do not call anyone after 9PM, in fact I rarely call anyone after 8PM...

Once again I'm confused. If you rarely call anyone after 8:00 pm, how is it fairer to have your minutes split up? If you place a call at 8:30 pm and it lasts until 9:30 pm, Verizon charges you 30 minutes of anytime usage whereas Sprint does not. How is that more fair?

cellphonesaretools said:

My family situation is such that a lot of minutes are consumed between 5:30PM and 7PM, hence I was forced to add-on Sprint's 6PM Unlimited Minutes for $10/mo/line to avoid potentially hundreds of dollars of overage charges each month.

Here again, I don't follow your complaint. If it's going to cost you hundreds of dollars in overages per month not having the add-on, how is Verizon then more fair? Is it's fairer to pay hundreds of dollars in overages or be required to wait five extra minutes to place a call?

cellphonesaretools said:

I appreciate the comments & insights, but if a subscriber is paying extra for an add-on that is called "Unlimited Minutes Starting At 6PM", I think most people would logically assume that the Unlimited Minutes truly begin at 6PM, no matter if a call is already in-progress or if it is started after 6PM. If Sprint is going to charge for minutes the way they currently do, then they really should have named it "Unlimited Minutes For Calls Started After 6PM"...

Most people I know who are of at least average intelligence would find out what, if any, restrictions are attached--just like you did. In this case, Sprint does identify this as unlimited calling rather than unlimited minutes:

http://shop.sprint.com/mysprint/shop/plan/pla n_wall.jsp?INTNAV=ATG:HElans


If you'll notice, the 7:00 pm plans say "calling" rather than minutes.

cellphonesaretools said:
I have not researched it yet, but I'm betting that Sprint-Nextel is one of the only telecom companies still holding on to the "dinosaur practice" (to paraphrase gloopey1's words) of charging all minutes of a call based on the starting time of that call.

While you're doing this reasearch, I would also checking to see whether any other telecom has night and weekend minutes ending at 6:00 am.