you will have to forgive phonepimp he works for a competitor and so he is fooled by there propaganda.

Actually Steve, Pimp knows Sprint better than YOU know Sprint...and guess what? He's not lying. He's telling the truth. Stop felching your cat and confusing potential customers.

actually i have to disagree he is way off when it comes to analog roam.

he was correct that digital features will not work in analog. cingulars digital network and verizons digital network is slightly larger then sprints.

how ever he was wrong in the fact of all digital networks. in terms of all digital networks there are very few out there of the major wireless players there is t-mobile and there is sprint. there other carriers ether have a tdma network or an amps network.

the second thing he was incorrect on was sprints analog roam. yes sprint does use analog roam. however pimp made it sound like with other carriers you would get a digital signal where on sprint you would be getting a pure analog signal. this is very incorrect....
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First off Steve... TDMA was the first digital technology, and was an upgrade to AMPS. CDMA was a digital upgrade to AMPS as well. Cingular has now completed its GSM overlay nationwide. GSM is all digital as well. SO when you look at the GSM Nation map, you are looking at an ALL DIGITAL network.

Secondly, If you look at Sprint's own native digital coverage, it is CONSIDERABLY smaller than most other national carriers. Granted you have a great number of roaming agreements, but even so your coverage is smaller combined than most major players. So there ARE many places where you would have analog, and a GSM user would be digital. Simply look at Sprint's off network analog roaming depicted on the website, and compare it to any major player.

...
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see this is what i was talking about. if you look at a map of sprint's digital and overlayed it with the total digital coverage (there network plus roaming) sprints digital roaming coverage is greater.

as i mentioned in a previous post some time you should actually walk into a sprint store ask them for a digital roaming map and actually look. it is a new thing (just intorduced these last three months) it is a really good map.

and don't misunderstand me i am not claiming sprint has the largest network. i know cingular and verizon both have larger networks (land coverage wise) how ever total towers nation wide verizon has only 45 more then sprint.... hmmm can you hear me now?

sprint as a smart economic move has built it's network to...
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Steve,

Why go into the SPrint store? I have current maps for all the carriers right at work.

You are missing my point entirely. The original question was about Fair and Flexible:

All Fair and Flexible is is a plan designed for low end users who worry they might go over their minutes. You get 300 minutes for $35.00. They then "adjust your plan" by packaging overage into small chunks and reducing the per minute price of that overage.

M2M is not nationwide, $35 is pretty high for 300 minutes, and the coverage is not all that. SPrint focuses development of its native coverage in a roadrunner array, following major highways and MTA's. Get outside those areas into the burbs and Sprint often suffers.

Other carriers offer much better ...
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well to correct a few of your mistakes. you are right mobile to mobile is not nation wide with sprint. but pcs to pcs calling nation wide. [ok so i was splitting hairs there] any where on the sprint network pcs to pcs calling is unlimited if you have the option. with other carriers [espetually verizon] there is fine print that limts it to only enhanced coverage aria.

you also mentioned coverage again. you said "How many customers want an emergency phone?" all of them obviously. if they get a dual band phone threw sprint they will have the largest voice foot print of any other carrier. and yest it may be on another carriers network. i have no idea where you live but i live in the midwest and out hear there are a lot of arias where you can...
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Pay 5 dollars extra and pay no roaming. Nationwide. Even outside the Sprint's service area. You know why? Because we're using everyone else's towers and not charging our customer. Take a look at our coverage map. Yes it includes some digital and analog capabilities... but the point is, the map is comprised of Dark Green (PCS) and Light Green (everything else).... (only about 1% is considered "dead zone") It doesn't matter whether you're digital roaming, analog roaming or out on the range roaming.... either way you get a SIGNAL which means you can USE YOUR PHONE ANYWHERE WITHOUT PAYING ROAMING CHARGES. By paying five dollars extra, you can talk anywhere in the entire nation where analog or digital or any signal in the sprint SPECTRUM of ava...
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Why pay 5 buck for free roaming when you get it FREE? Our coverage map has ONE color... its all available.

Again, you are delusional on your understanding of rollover minutes, but that doesn't surprise me, since you obviously haven't got the acumen to actually do your own thinking. Rollover minutes BEGIN to 'roll off' after a year, one month at time, but are replaced by the rollover minutes generated in the month they roll off. January 2003's minutes roll off in January 2004, but are replaced by the rollover minutes Generated in January 2004.

If you are in my mom's bedroom, get out now! She died almost 15 years ago, so the house is under new ownership. Fact is ash, you're trying to bash something you don't have the facts on. Namecallin...
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If someone says they never want to pay roaming and they want signal everywhere with free nights and weekends. Sprint free and clear america is the best, here in ohio you can roam on verizon and cingular analog. If you can deal with sprints customer service.

Pimp,
I think you misunderstand fair and flexible as most of us do without an explanation.
Fair and flexible is designed for a specific segment of the wireless market. It is not the end all plan. If it were then the other plans would not be offered anymore.
It is designed for those whose wireless usage is often minimal, but occasionally goes higher. We'll call them the "spike" customer. To understand it as Sprint does one must look at wireless spending from an annualized position. Sprint estimates that "Spike" customers will save about $100-$200 per year with fair and flexible.
Unlike rollover minutes it does not force someone to buy a plan that has more minutes than the customer needs in order to build up a base of rollover minutes fo...
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So you had to come up with something to dazzle them huh? Fact of the matter is it's still just packaged overage.

Do the math and see where they are truly better off. Sprint F&F is 35.00 for 300 minutes. That's 11.6 cents per minute.

Cingular's Nation GSM gives you 450 minutes with rollover for 39.99. That is 8.8 cents per minute.

Plus they get an all digital network, don't have to pay an additional 5 bucks for no roaming and all of their features and services work network wide, even when roaming. Our Native coverage dwarfs yours. Where do you have us beat, even for your low minute users? We still offer better value.

and what is wrong with packaged overage??? i mean look at the alternative you buy more mins then your need. why would you buy something you don't need? that is just waistful. some people hate to have to buy all those mins and then not even use them. in fact that is why a lot of people do prepay.... and well fair and flexable is a lot cheeper then prepay.

you have also mentioned cingulars network and the nonroaming aspect. why is it that every month i get cutomers switching to sprint because they had over 1000 mins of roaming on there cingular phone where roaming is suposed to be included??? another huge down side to cingulars network is you can only use it. that is all. and as we know no network is 100% they all have there crapy arias.
...
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Steve -

Where in the heck do you people get the idea you can only use Cingular's network. Ever hear of our roaming partners, like AWE and T-Mobile.
We will be the largest carrier in the country in network size by year's end. Over 400,000 POPs. Thats almost double VZW, buddy.
Why do you get people switching. Most likely Region plans, which DO have roaming outside the region, as do ALL Regional plans.

Look at F&F for a minute and use your head. If they don't want to pay for something they aren't going to use, whats to stop them from going to a non rollover plan? We still kick your butt. 250 minutes with no rollover for 29.99, Nationwide no roaming. No extra 5 bucks for access to the roaming partners. So here it is. They can spend an ex...
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If a Cingular Customer has roaming charges it is because they are on a really ancient plan i am assuming. There is no roaming. and yes, it does work on Cingulars network, Which is extremely larger than Sprints. I sell both Sprint and Cingular. and really the only thing sprint has that is better is there exclusive deal with Sanyo. Which i dont really understand because i know some smaller region carriers have their phones.

the only regional carriers that have sanyo phones are affilates of sprint

like quest and alamosa and airgate pcs just to name a few

Phone Pimp let me ask you this. If a new customer walks into Cingular and wants the 450 minute rollover plan and goes over by say 50 minutes on their 1st month. It looks like they get charged .45 cents a minute! So that would tack on an extra $22.50 to their 1st bill. If a F&F Sprint Customer came in and said they wanted the 300 minute plan for $35 but then went over 200 minutes, how much do you think they would pay?
$20 more dollars, thats it! Not .40 cents a minute $2.50 for every extra 25 minutes.

So lets do the math

Cingular $40 plan 450 M + $22.50 in overage
$62.50 for 500 minutes used

Sprint $35 plan 300 M + $20 in overage
$55.00 for 500 minutes used

But the beauty is that you can still add an ...
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Still say its a pricey way to go. And if a rep knows how to do his job, a customer will ALWAYS know how many minutes they will average.

even on their very first bill...seems kinda hard for any rep to make that call...unless they have Kingfrogs Crystal Ball

But you don't understand, VZWMan... the first bill is the only prayer they have to cinvince people that this is a good idea. After that they have no prayer...lol

Yes but wouldn't it also be the only bill in which they would get charged overage with Cingular...unless they use more than they have available every month that is

yes it would...rollover starts in the second full month, because you can't rollover something you don't HAVE yet...lol

Not to mention, our 29.99 Nation plan is more than competitive with theirs, and has no rollover. 250 minutes, no roaming, no long distance charges, and 1000 N&W minutes

Compared to: 35.00 for 300 minutes, 5.00 extra to roam off network, no long distance charges

Now look at the fact that digital features do not work on analog, so all their fun Vision stuff, email, games, etc. no longer work. On Cingular, its ALL digital, so everything works, not just on OUR network, but when roaming as well. The only product this is not true of is Voice Connect, which is only functional on our network.

Not looking like such a good...
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So how much does a customer get charged for overage on the $29.99 plan?

.45 a minute... lower than the .69 on your lower plans

ON F&F you pay $2.50 for minute 301-325, then another $2.50 for each other jump, not sure where you get your #'s from, but they are just wrong.

F&F starts at 35.00. No matter what I demonstrate, you are going to remain convinced the plan kicks our butt. I have pointed out that each minute on F&F is an additional 3 cents higher than Cingular's per minute rate. so figure this - 3 cents per minute at 300 minutes.

That equals 9 dollars more that you pay for those 300 minutes than you would with us. Every month. Regardless of overage. That's 216.00 over the course of a two year contract that the Sprint customer is spending over a better plan with Cingular. No wonder you can drop overage charges lower... you're building in your own cost recovery!even if you deduct the cost difference between the two plans @4.99 a month, thats still a loss for the Sprint customer of $97.

Combat the ...
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and I was generous and didn't figure in the $5 roaming network fee. If you want the REAL numbers, add $120.

You never replied to what I said though, if your Cingular customer spikes on their 1st month who comes out ahead?

Without breaking down the base plan, what is the overage gonna cost the consumer.

BTW if you think EVERY customer that walks in to buy a phone, that has never had one before, knows EXACTLY how many minutes they will use. Then you are either a fool or you have got the easiest job on earth!

In the first month the Sprint customer would have the advantage. But for every OTHER mobth the Cingular customer would. I think a smart consumer would rather take a 1 month chance than a 24 month chance.

I never said the customer WOULD know. But I do believe that with proper fact-finding, and taking an interest in the customer, you can help them determine that, and then adjust for exceptions so they have a plan that meets their needs without breaking them.

That is a lot easier to do with rollover, since after the first month, they have a cushion against overage that builds. Another advantage of rollover minutes is that they can adjust down in rate plan to use them up, and save money at the same time. An advantage F&F doesn't have.

It seems that some people don't see the innovative nature of Fair and Flexible.
It is designed for a particular user. Some people are limited in their thinking to traditional wireless sales strategies. F&F is designed with a user's annual spending in mind. It takes some retraining to think in terms of annual expense rather than the monthly expense. You take people whose lifestyle only occasionally includes a wireless phone but have some months where they depend on their phone. (Arizona snowbirds) Mostly they are under 300 minutes but during November to March they use about 600 minutes per month. Suddenly F&F makes way more sense than rollover and with the America Attachment their coverage without roaming charges dwarfs Cingular's.
F&F is a...
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so charging them 3 cents more per minute of plan usage is watching out for their annual cost? BULLSHIT!

Um...

"i know cingular and verizon both have larger networks (land coverage wise) how ever total towers nation wide verizon has only 45 more then sprint.... hmmm can you hear me now?"

That's complete fiction. The VZW network is spread on just over 30,000 cell towers. The competitor with the next highest amount is AT&T with I believe (not positive here) approximately 22,000. Cingular is third.

You guys have a long way to go "from the ground up".

Later.

ps what part was i wrong with?

was it

a) Fair and Flexible America Automatically adjusts even if you are in roaming.?

b) Sprint will roam on any cdma network?

or

c) you really don't have to worry about using over half your mins in roam?

if i was wrong on any one of those points i would like to know that way i am not spreading miss information.