Sprint, America’s third largest mobile phone and wireless company, has launched a marketing war on its bigger competitors AT&T and Verizon Wireless scoffing at both providers’ $69.99 “unlimited” calling plans.

“Recently AT&T and Verizon have attempted to confuse the marketplace by lowering their pricing to $69.99, but theirs are for calling only,” said Mike Goff, Sprint’s vice president of corporate marketing.

Sprint launched a new advertising campaign this morning featuring CEO Dan Hesse calling out both carriers for effectively confusing consumers.

Hesse explains most people use their cell phones for more than just making and receiving calls.  Hesse said his larger competitors charge substantially more to use data services, and that many of the latest handsets don’t qualify for the special pricing.

Both AT&T and Verizon Wireless have started to require consumers with so-called “smartphones” to sign up with a data plan, adding to the customer’s bill whether or not they actually use such services.  Sprint says their unlimited plan also bundles unlimited web browsing, texting, and GPS navigation for the same price — $69.99, available on any phone they sell.

Sprint has had its hands full trying to stem the ongoing loss of its customers to larger competitors.

AT&T has benefited from an exclusive sales agreement for Apple’s iPhone, while Verizon Wireless achieved the top spot among U.S. carriers for its perceived widest coverage area.  Sprint has neither, and historically poor customer service to boot.

Will Sprint’s new campaign make an impact?

Roger Entner, head of telecom research for the Nielsen Co., told Brandweek that AT&T and Verizon are in such a commanding position in the market right now that they are unlikely to respond to Sprint. “They have the luxury of being able to ignore [Sprint],” said Entner, who noted that both AT&T and Verizon added millions of new subscribers in the fourth quarter, many at Sprint’s expense.

Sprint has managed to at least slow customer defections.  In the last quarter of 2009, Sprint lost 148,000 subscribers.  The previous quarter, the company lost 545,000 customers.

[flv width=”640″ height=”378″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Sprint Ad – Just Phone Calls 3-2-2010.flv[/flv]

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse explains why their $69.99 plan is “better” than the competition in this new advertisement.

Cablevision subscribers: Just two months after facing the loss of HGTV and the Food Network, get ready to lose WABC-TV — the ABC affiliate in New York, just hours before the Oscars telecast is set to begin.

Cablevision’s contract with Disney-owned WABC-TV will expire March 7th, and both sides have not reached an agreement.

The dispute centers around retransmission rights fees.  Currently, WABC permits Cablevision to carry its channel on their lineup for free.  But now the station wants to be paid.  WABC claims Cablevision earns $18 million a month from its broadcast basic lineup of mostly-local channels, and it’s time to share a portion of that with the station.

Cablevision has so far not agreed to the asking price.

“Cablevision’s position is that ABC7 is worth little to nothing to its business and its proposed offers have been consistently unreasonable and unrealistic,” said Rebecca Campbell, president and general manager of WABC-TV. “We think these shows are valuable, and your bill shows that Cablevision must agree since you already pay for ABC7 as part of your Broadcast Basic Tier – a service for which, as a Cablevision customer, you pay as much as $18 each month.  Cablevision charges you for ABC7 and then keeps all the money.”

WABC has started a website to educate customers how to drop Cablevision and switch to a competitor such as Verizon FiOS, or get access to the station over-the-air.

Cablevision fired back accusing ABC of asking consumers to pay a TV tax amounting to $40 million that would have to be passed onto subscribers in another rate increase.

“It is not fair for ABC-Disney to hold Cablevision customers hostage by forcing them to pay what amounts to a new TV tax,” said Charles Schueler, Cablevision executive vice president.

Both sides indicate negotiations are continuing, and some compromise may still be reached before the deadline.

[flv width=”600″ height=”356″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WABC New York Cablevision viewers may lose Channel 7 on cable service 3-2-2010.flv[/flv]

WABC-TV is running this 30-second ad telling viewers about the dispute with Cablevision, along with stories on their newscasts. (4 minutes)

Across AT&T’s service areas, the company has lobbied heavily for telecommunications deregulation that, among other things, makes the printing and distribution of telephone directories optional.  In Alabama, AT&T has filed a request with the state Public Service Commission to end automatic delivery of residential listings, the so-called “White Pages,” to reduce costs.

Because telephone companies earn substantial revenue from advertising in the business listings, the “Yellow Pages” will continue to be printed and dropped on doorsteps across Alabama once a year, whether  customers ask for them or not.

AT&T’s filing with the Alabama PSC explains the reasons for stopping the printed residential listings:

The traditional residential white page telephone book no longer provides the same utility it once did. Based on trials AT&T has recently conducted, it appears that the vast majority of customers neither need nor use these often quite large, bound paper directories delivered to their homes each year. AT&T Alabama thus proposes a directory delivery trial whereby AT&T Alabama would initially deliver the AT&T Real Yellow Pages directory in the Mobile market.

In addition to traditional Yellow Pages listings, that directory would also contain the business white page listings, the Government listings, the customer guide information, and other information required under the Commission’s Rules. Also included will be materials informing customers they can receive a printed white pages directory containing residential listings, which will be mailed at no cost to the customer. Customers tend to find their residential listings in today’s marketplace in a manner other than by using the printed white page directories, so publishing largely unused residential white page books is an inefficient use of environmental resources.

If the proposal is approved, AT&T will offer Alabama residents the option of receiving a printed version of the White Pages or a CD-ROM containing the listings mailed to them at no charge.

AT&T’s telephone directories are already online at AT&T’s RealPagesLive website.

The PSC is expected to consider the matter later today.

Today’s quote comes courtesy of Landel Hobbs, chief operating officer of Time Warner Cable.

Speaking at an investor conference in San Francisco, Hobbs said broadband has replaced cable TV as its anchor product, meaning subscribers increasingly refuse to part with it, no matter the price.

“Consumers like it so much that we have the ability to increase pricing around high-speed data,” Hobbs was noted saying by the Wall Street Journal.

Hobbs also reports the cable company continues to grow its Road Runner service at the expense of telephone companies and their lackluster DSL product lines.  Much of Time Warner’s broadband growth these days comes from disaffected DSL customers switching providers.  Broadband remains a profit center for the cable industry even as revenue from cable television flatlines in a difficult economy.

So let the Money Party begin… your broadband bill is going up, especially in areas where subscribers don’t have many alternatives.

A class action lawsuit has been filed this week to recoup what a law firm has called “improper data charges” for Verizon Wireless customers who discovered $1.99 fees on their phone bills for “data charges” many customers claim they never used.

Goldman Scarlato & Karon, P.C., a law firm with offices in Cleveland, OH and Conshohocken, PA, filed the suit against the wireless giant in federal court in New Jersey.

The lawsuit alleges non-smartphone customers frequently incurred “data fees” on their monthly Verizon Wireless bills.

Karon

Stop the Cap! reported on this in 2009, and believes most of the charges appeared after consumers accidentally triggered their phone’s built-in mobile web browser.  Although Verizon Wireless claims it does not charge for accidental access, customers report otherwise.  Many have fought to have data access blocked to prevent future charges.  The fees potentially impacted any account that does not have a monthly data plan.  Verizon Wireless offers a pay-per-access plan starting at $1.99 for non-data customers.

The lawsuit seeks to reimburse customers should the charges be deemed improper.

The law firm is looking for those charged for data services that believe they were billed incorrectly.  Customers can e-mail the firm at [email protected] or call attorney Daniel Karon at (216) 622-1851.