Ken Vander Meeden
Better Business Bureau
Many consumers in the Grand Rapids area are discovering a new convenience: prepaid cell phones. If you need a cellular phone, but don’t want to sign a multi-year contract, these may be a good option for you. With prepaid cellular phone plans, users prepay for the airtime much like they buy prepaid long distance phone cards. There are usually no credit check, activation, monthly or early termination fees to pay.
A prepaid cellular phone comes with a specified number of airtime minutes. You can then purchase more or «recharge» your minutes online or by calling the toll-free number on your prepaid phone. With most plans, you receive an automatic warning when you need to buy more airtime minutes. Once your minutes run out, you can no longer make or receive calls.
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By Ann Butler
Herald Staff Writer
Locals may have noticed a blue-and-white postcard from Qwest in their mailboxes lately. It announces that customers who use Qwest for their interstate long-distance service will see a new charge on their bills starting Aug. 16. They will be billed 99 cents each month, whether or not they make long-distance interstate calls that month.
Michael Dunn, of Qwest media relations, said the rate increase did not require Federal Communications Commission approval because long-distance rates at the interstate level are unregulated.
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By KEN BELSON
New York Times
TWO years ago, Allen Tsong had just about had enough. Tired of paying $50 a month for a local phone line from Verizon that he rarely used, he canceled the service and ordered a voice-over-Internet phone from Vonage, a start-up that entered the market two years ago. He has never looked back.
To start his service, Mr. Tsong, who lives in Brooklyn, attached an ordinary phone to a paperback-sized adapter that can send his calls over high-speed Internet connections. The biggest draw was the price: Mr. Tsong spends $15 a month for 500 minutes of calls anywhere in the United States or Canada, and speaks to family and colleagues in China for pennies a minute.
"Why shell out 40 to 50 bucks a month for a regular phone line?’’ he asked, adding that he had installed another Internet phone in his Brooklyn office. «At first, my wife was skeptical, but as long as she can pick it up and get a dial tone, she’ll use it.»
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The thought of it boggles the mind. Ma Bell once bestrode the earth like a corporate giant. Now the likes of Kohlberg, Kravis are eying it.
By Allan Sloan
Newsweek International
Aug. 2 issue — It’s come to this: AT&T, once the mightiest company on earth, the firm that reached out and touched almost every American household, is not only giving up on attracting new residential customers—but it’s almost certain to be targeted by a group of takeover artists. I’ve learned that several former high-ranking AT&T executives who left the firm after disagreements with the current management are
Working with Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co., a New York leveraged-buyout house. It’s not clear what their KKR gig consists of—KKR declined to comment—but it’s hard to imagine that the topic of AT&T never arises. And, my sources say, within the past year KKR and at least one other private-equity firm have approached AT&T about buying the company. AT&T declined to comment on any aspect of this article.
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Skype Technologies, whose software has allowed millions of people to make free calls on the internet, is about to go mainstream.
The internet calling rebel plans to start offering calls from computers to regular phone lines anywhere in the world for less than US2˘ a minute. The company last week announced a deal with Level 3 Communications and other carriers to route the calls.
In less than a year, Skype — a creation of the makers of music file-sharing software Kazaa — has attracted more than 7 million registered users by offering free software that allows them to make free calls from one computer to another.
The move by Estonia-based Skype comes soon after Verizon Communications, the largest phone company in the US, launched its own nationwide internet calling service. AT&T and Qwest Communications already offer internet calling, as do many of the largest cable companies in the US and a slew of upstarts.
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