Editor’s Note: Wireless operators are a busy bunch, and as such RCR Wireless News will attempt to gather some of the important announcements that may slip through the cracks from the world’s largest carriers in a weekly wrap-up. Enjoy!
—T-Mobile US continued to tinker with its rate plans this week, announcing an expansion of its Stateside International Talk & Text plan to now include calls from the United States to landline and mobile customers in more than 30 countries. The plan previously was limited to just calls made to mobile devices.
T-Mobile US on Feb. 23 is also set to launch a premium version of the plan that will include unlimited mobile-to-mobile calling from the United States to more than 30 countries and up to 1,000 mobile-to-mobile calling minutes to Mexico for $15 per month. The new offering builds on the $10-per-month-plan that includes unlimited calls from the United States to landlines in more than 70 countries, unlimited texting to more than 200 countries, and a cap of 20 cents per minute for mobile-to-mobile calling to any number in more than 100 countries.
T-Mobile US last October unveiled an international roaming addition to its Simple Choice plans that provided unlimited data and messaging services in more than 100 countries at no extra charge. Customers looking to communicate the old-fashioned way are charged 20 cents per minute for all voice calls in those same markets.
—AT&T again came out on top of a customer satisfaction survey conducted by J.D. Power and Associates, this time gaining top marks for overall satisfaction with the wireless purchase experience.
Among contract wireless service providers, AT&T Mobility picked up a score of 806 on a 1,000-point scale according to the J.D. Power 2014 Wireless Purchase Experience Study – Volume 1. The survey was based on responses from 8,525 wireless customers.
Sprint, which has recently had its share of disappointments in recent customer satisfaction surveys, came out No. 2 among its nationwide competitors, posting a score of 797, just shy of the survey’s average of 798. T-Mobile US was No. 3 in the latest rankings with a score of 796, followed by Verizon Wireless, which posted a score of 792.
AT&T Mobility dramatically improved from its No. 3 ranking in the same survey conducted last year where it scored just 762 points. That survey had Sprint at the top with a score of 778, followed by Verizon Wireless with a score of 764 and T-Mobile USA pulling up the rear with a score of 753.
AT&T Mobility earlier this month came out on top in a J.D. Power survey of “customer care full-service performance,” which followed on a win in a similar survey conducted in late 2013.
Among no-contract focused service providers, J.D. Power found Sprint’s Boost Mobile brand provided the best overall satisfaction with the wireless purchase experience with a score of 798. The carrier came out considerably ahead of T-Mobile US’ MetroPCS brand with a score of 788, followed by Sprint’s Virgin Mobile offering with a score of 786.
Boost Mobile scored the top spot in last year’s ranking with a score of 773, followed by MetroPCS with a score of 768 and Virgin Mobile with a score of 767.
—SK Telecom recently announced it planned to build additional 1.8 GHz base stations in order to provide nationwide coverage across South Korea to support LTE and LTE-Advanced services. The expansion is expected to be complete by the end of the year and is designed to provide network speeds of up to 150 megabits per second.
The expansion will be used to bolster SK Telecom’s current nationwide LTE and LTE-A network running across 10 megahertz of spectrum in the 800 MHz band. The 1.8 GHz addition, which was initially announced late last year, is set to add up to 20 megahertz of new spectrum to support higher-speed services.
Looking ahead, SK Telecom said it plans to further bolster its LTE and LTE-A network with 10 megahertz of spectrum in the 2.1 GHz band later this year, which will then see the carrier supporting its LTE network with three separate spectrum bands using carrier aggregation.
–Enterprise-focused mobile data provider DataXoom said it will offer six months of free LTE data access for customers that sign up for service by March 31. The offer will include two gigabytes of data for each tablet device activated for its service.
DataXoom, which claims to not require a contract or cancellation penalties for its service, offers mobile data access across LTE, CDMA2000 1x EV-DO and HSPA+ networks. The company has previously announced partnerships with Sprint and AT&T Mobility. The company says it targets enterprise customers looking for a minimum of 20 tablet connections, with customers able to bring their own compatible devices to the service.
Additional carrier news can be found on the RCR Wireless News “Carriers” page.
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