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Cell phone plan debuts
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May 7, 1998: 8:16 p.m. ET
AT&T announces national service package for digital wireless phones
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - AT&T unveiled a new class of digital wireless phone service Thursday that aims to replace car phones, second lines, and even your home set.
The AT&T Digital One Rate plan offers service in all fifty states while eliminating roaming fees and separate long-distance charges. And airtime will go for as little as $0.11 per minute.
But the plan doesn't come cheap. There are three monthly pricing options: 600 minutes for $89.99; 1,000 minutes for $119.99; and 1,400 minutes for $149.99.
Current cellular pricing plans will not change.
The company is confident that the price tag won't scare consumers.
"We think customers who are spending forty or fifty dollars a month now will move up to the eighty-to-ninety dollar range and use this as their (main) phone," said Dan Hesse, president of AT&T Wireless.
The service requires the use of a digital multi-network cell phone, called a "Personal Communications Service," or PCS, phone, which works on AT&T's digital network as well as on other digital networks and on analog systems.
Caller ID, paging, voice mail, and call waiting are all included free with the service.
Even if you already have a digital cell phone, you'll be required to buy a new handset, the Nokia 6162. It sells for between $199 and $229 and weighs less than six ounces.
Robert Wilkes, communications analyst with Brown Brothers Harriman said, "I think it's moderately important for the company as a whole, because it shows AT&T's wireless business is getting closer to the point of migrating calls from wired networks to wireless."
AT&T Wireless has faced growing competition from Baby Bells, as well as companies such as Nextel Communications and Sprint PCS.
Shares of AT&T ended the day 1-11/16 at 57-7/8, on word of U S West's alliance with Qwest Communications.
-- from staff writer Brendan Hasenstab
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