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New Wireless Service Enters Bay Area Market

October 03, 2002
Monterey County Herald

MetroPCS became the Bay Area's seventh provider of wireless phone service this week, entering the market with a bang: unlimited calling for $35 a month, the first "all you can eat" plan ever offered here.

MetroPCS (www.metropcs.com), for now at least, is offering a great deal for those who can live with its restrictions - unlimited calling only applies in the company's Northern California territory, covering most of the Bay Area as well as Sacramento-Stockton and Monterey-Salinas.

AT&T Wireless (www.attws.com) is going to introduce an unlimited plan in the Bay Area this month for a much steeper $99 a month. This plan will offer nationwide calling with no long-distance charges, provided users remain on AT&T's own network. From the beginnings of cellular service 20 years ago, users have had to watch the clock. Per-minute rates have plunged, and some carriers are now offering unlimited calling on nights and weekends when usage is low, but consumers still get a limited number of "anytime" minutes that can be used during peak weekday hours. Going beyond the monthly bucket of minutes can get expensive, with additional minutes typically costing 30 to 45 cents each.

Enter MetroPCS.

The Dallas company launched service in February serving the metropolitan areas of Atlanta, Miami and Sacramento. The official Bay Area launch Tuesday completed the company's network - MetroPCS only has licenses to serve these four markets.

Here's how it works:

* You start by purchasing a phone for $149; the purchase price includes the first month of service and 10 minutes of long distance. There's only one model of phone to choose from: the Sony Ericsson T206.

* You then pay $35 in advance each month, either by cash or credit card, to keep the service going.

* You can talk as much as you want, any time of day, anywhere in the MetroPCS territory across Northern California. The MetroPCS coverage map covers almost every populated part of the region, but it doesn't cover downtown Los Gatos, Morgan Hill or Gilroy in southern Santa Clara County.

Calls can be placed toll-free to any number in 10 Northern California area codes - 209, 408, 415, 510, 530, 650, 707, 831, 916 and 925. Calls to area codes elsewhere in the United States cost 5 cents a minute. Long-distance service must be purchased in advance in increments of $10, $20 or $30.

The one big weakness in the MetroPCS approach is "roaming," which means using the phone outside the MetroPCS network. Roaming requires a credit card, and the credit card number must be entered into the phone each time you want to make a call. You pay $1 to $2 a minute for roaming; you're told the exact rate after punching in the credit card.

I borrowed a MetroPCS phone and spent several days carrying it around Silicon Valley. I got a strong signal and had no trouble placing calls while driving on major highways, including Highway 101, Interstates 280 and 880, and while walking around the downtown districts of Palo Alto, Mountain View and San Jose.

MetroPCS deserves credit, by the way, for producing an unusually honest coverage map, available on the company's Web site or as a four-color brochure from any wireless retailer offering the service. The MetroPCS map shows many small pockets where signal strength is only sufficient for using the phone outside, as well as showing spots scheduled for "planned expansion."

There's one part of MetroPCS service I couldn't test, because the company is only beginning operations here: Whether customers will get busy signals during peak demand times, such as the morning and evening rush hours.

I did, however, make a few informal checks of MetroPCS service in Atlanta, Miami and Sacramento. While there are some reports of dead spots and busy signals, the complaints don't seem beyond those you'd hear about any wireless phone company.

So, except for the possibility of future overcrowding, I'm willing to give MetroPCS a big thumbs up.

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