Tag Archives: home phone services

T-Mobile to Increase Monthly Customer Fees from 10th June

May 29, 2017 Americandialtone Leave a comment

With another round of news, the growing mobile and home phone service provider – T-Mobile – has made it to the headlines, again.

According to the T-Mobile, the company has incurred certain losses in the past and is carrying them forward till the present day. Thus, to recover from these losses, T-Mobile has decided to increase some monthly customer fees, the next month.

The Announcement

The mobile and prepaid phone service provider made an announcement recently, to increase certain monthly fee charges for its customers. The increase in the fees is going to affect a number of T-Mobile customers.

With effect from 10^th June 2017, a few select T-Mobile accounts will face an increase in the Regulatory Programs & Telco Recovery Fee.

The increase in the fee would be from $2.71 to $3.18 for the voice lines and from $0.98 t0 $1.16 for the data lines.

The customers using the T-Mobile ONE Taxes & Fees Included plan are, however, unaffected by this change. But all other customers of the prepaid phone service provider, come in the loop.

As per T-Mobile, the former customers of the SunCom Wireless were exempted from this fee but now, with the increase in the fee, these customers are also going to pay it. It is only if they’re not using the T-Mobile ONE Taxes & Fees Included plan.

SunCom is a wireless carrier based in Pennsylvania that was acquired by T-Mobile in 2008 for an amount of $1.6 billion.

According to T-Mobile, a growing mobile and home phone service provider, the changes in the fee structure for its services are based on the cost structure of its third-party services and that of the government program compliance. The changes are said to be a part of T-Mobile’s standard price adjustments.

The company said that it regularly reviews the related compliance costs of its services and adjusts the customer fees in accordance with these changes, charging the customers accurately as per their choice of plan.

The T-Mobile officials said, “This is not a government tax, rather a fee collected and retained by T-Mobile to help recover certain costs we have already incurred and continue to incur. It includes: 1) Funding and complying with government mandates, programs, and obligations, like E911 or local number portability ($0.60 of the total charge for voice lines and $0.15 for data only lines), and 2) Charges imposed on T-Mobile by other carriers for the delivery of calls from our customers to theirs, and by third parties for certain network facilities and services we purchase to provide you with service (Up until 6/10/2017, it will be $2.11 of the total charge for voice lines or $0.83 for data only lines; From 6/10/2017 on it will be $2.58 of the total charge for voice lines or $1.01 for data only lines).”

Thus, the increase in the customer fee by the home phone and prepaid phone service provider must not be mistaken for the government taxes or fees as the money is to be retained by the service provider, itself.

In a Nutshell

T-Mobile has planned to increase certain monthly fees for its customers, implementing from June 10. The idea behind such increase in the customer fees is to make up for the losses being continuously incurred by the mobile and home phone service provider.

A number of customers will be affected by this change, except for the ones that have opted for the T-Mobile ONE Taxes & Fees Included plan. So, we’re to see if T-Mobile has made its way to healing from the previous losses or to incur more of them.

landline, Verzion

Frontier All Set to Take over Verizon’s Landline Assets

March 29, 2016 Americandialtone Leave a comment

Frontier Telecom is all set to acquire all of Verizon’s landline related assets in California, Florida and Texas in the coming month. Clearly this acquisition doesn’t include Verizon’s wireless cell phone services but includes Internet, video and phone services. The transfer is scheduled for April 1.

Verizon officials have already announced that it will solely focus its business efforts on the wireless service although it continues to hold the landline operations in the northeast industry, said Les Kumagai, Verizon spokesperson. With this move, the home phone services will be exceptionally be affected.

Landlines are expected to be obsolete in the coming years, and other telecommunication networks are aiming at wireless assets, said Jay Prag, professor of economics and finance at the Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University.

Frontier Communications officials state that they plan to maintain the existing products and services including internet, voice, video, and online security. The company also announced that it will honour Verizon’s previous promotional pricing via their advertised deadlines. “We’re excited to be in this business and to be the new service provider for these customers, welcoming them into the family, and we are 100 percent focused on creating a great experience for the new customers,” said Cameron Christian, Frontier Communications vice president of marketing for the West region.

Stamford officials said they were unable to break down the number of employees or customers it will acquire regionally but as per state they are welcoming approx. 5000 Verizon employees to Frontier. Plus, the company is absorbing 3.7 million new customers throughout the states. Other cheap home phone services will have to pull up their socks so as to be competitive enough to defeat the clever move made by Frontier and Verizon telecommunications. New Frontier customers can expect that their bills will be sent out in April with the instruction on some payment options available to them.

AT&T

AT&T’s New Android App Enables Texting from Landline

February 18, 2016 Americandialtone Leave a comment

Many consumers still pay heavy bills for their landlines. Most of them are either business owners or elderly. There are still some who use landline and in some cases it is considered necessary. And, if you feel landlines aren’t worth the trouble because they can’t even be used for texting, then you are wrong. AT&T’s new Android app lets you send and receive text messages using your landline.

The official AT&T Android app is not just a text messaging service but is exclusively used for those who pay an extra amount to enable sending and receiving of text messages from their landline. However, they aren’t paying extra at all for this app. It simply costs them $10 for 100 messages a month, or $25 on top of whatever they are already paying for the landline bill in the first place. Although the Android app is a virtual message bucket, it also includes some advanced features like auto-reply, scheduled text and also a call function. It is still not clear if it is a VOIP or a reroute solution that makes this work from their landline number.

The app makes a lot of sense if you are running a large scale business. So this pricey add-on would allow business owners to cater to more of their communication needs. Another major advantage includes that the app is free but only for AT&T landline customers. AT&T obviously hopes that the new Android app helps in making a drastic change in business communication.

Home Phone

The Big Shift in Landline Usage and Infrastructure

July 28, 2015 Americandialtone Leave a comment

It’s been about 130 years that the traditional landline, a phone system distributed via a network of copper wire, has been in place. And even while cell phones have carved a strong niche for themselves and their usage is almost ubiquitous, avid users of the old copper wire still remain. Going by data from major telecom companies, many households still prefer to stick to their traditional landlines due to certain benefits attached to them. For example, they offer unparalleled call clarity and 911 tracking response which cellphones fail to provide. Therefore, telecom companies insist that conventional landlines still remain a preferable option for consumers as telephone companies try and find the best fit for them.

Post the boom in the wireless sector, telecom companies are now geared to make infrastructure upgrades for Internet and television service to extend more options to homeowners. For example, a few months back Verizon capitalized on its expansive wireless networks to introduce wireless home phones with a product called Voice Link. This alternative can immensely improve home phone service, increase customer choice and ease out disruptions in regions where existing infrastructure for landlines may be chronically faulty. Wireless home phone customers receive hardware that allows them to tap into an existing mobile network for traditional home phone use. It receives the same dial tone and basic service through a new source at a similar price. As a result, this new method also proves quite beneficial for users.

Verizon is not the only company offering a service like this. AT&T just announced a compelling product that supplies voice service in the same manner. Even the AARP and Walmart have jumped into the mix, offering products that offer only voice service.

Executives from various renowned telecom companies insist that wireless home phone service is not a replacement for traditional land lines. It could rather be a welcome option for customers who have suffered continued problems with their conventional wired phone service due to aging copper infrastructure.

Thanks to such developments, as well as competition for landline customers among cable companies, fiber optic providers, and voice over Internet providers, there are more offerings for traditional home phone services to television and internet subscribers at competitive prices.

Home Phone

Landlines Still Do What Cell Phones Can’t

September 1, 2014 Americandialtone Leave a comment

A lot of discussion about the importance of reliable, affordable phone service has been doing the rounds. Following this, some people are attempting to get the New Jersey lawmakers to overlook the facts about the inadequacies of fixed wireless service for which many New Jersey consumers are being coerced.

It is true that Verizon is required by state law to make the basic, affordable, and reliable service available. Verizon’s landline phone service has been serving that purpose for years now, and has therefore become a trusted source for the New Jerseyans, old and young alike.

We know for a fact that thousands of older New Jersey residents particularly rely on their landline for a number of reasons, including health and safety. Many feel the dependence on medical monitoring systems that will not work without a reliable, conventional landline. Many have home security systems, which work depending on that same landline. Most important of all is the fact that landline phones provide relentless support during tough times like the Superstorm Sandy. At such a time, there surfaces only one reliable connection to the outside world, one lone ray of hope, when power goes out and cell towers turn down.

Verizon should have the right to market VoiceLink as an optional service people who are interested. But yes, it should only remain like an optional service and not a mandate.

Community progress should be given the required platform and space to grow. And it is to be appreciated as well as understood that someday, a technology will be introduced that will be more cost-effective, more affordable for consumers, and will represent a step forward in innovation and reliability.

Until then, reliable, affordable phone service remains a necessity for many New Jersey consumers. To allow Verizon to step away from its service obligation could be a step toward isolation, and away from help, for those who depend on their phone service the most.

Cheap Home Phone Service USA