PrimeCo Personal Communications LP will roll out its wireless-phone service in South Florida and 14 other U.S. cities today.
To attract potential customers, it’s starting off with a tried-and-true method: free pizza. In South Florida, PrimeCo will host a pizza party at noon at its Coral Gables store.
With that rollout of service, PrimeCo will mark the first competition and threat to BellSouth and AT&T; Wireless in a decade and initiate what will likely be a costly battle for wireless-phone customers across the country.
Before the end of next year, Sprint PCS LP and General Wireless also will offer wireless phone service in South Florida. The Federal Communications Commission is auctioning off three more South Florida wireless-phone service licenses.
PrimeCo’s launch marks the largest rollout of personal communications services, and the next few months will be a test of PCS’s much-hyped digital system.
The joint venture of Bell Atlantic Corp., Nynex Corp., U S West Media Group and AirTouch Communications said it will sell its phones and services through six national retail chains – Best Buy, Circuit City, Computer City, Incredible Universe, Office Depot and Radio Shack. It will also open its own retail outlets.
The rollout comes 16 months after PrimeCo paid $1.1 billion for its PCS licenses and invested another $1 billion to build its network. PCS promises consumers clearer calls over small phones, longer battery life, paging and enhanced services such as voice mail.
“We are the first PCS provider to hit the streets in almost every market,” said Ben Scott, president and chief executive of PrimeCo. “They said it couldn’t be done in one city, let alone in 16 cities coast to coast.”
BellSouth Mobility and AT&T; Wireless say they aren’t worried about the advent of PCS PrimeCo. In the future, digital service will be better than analog service, said Don Riedel, BellSouth Mobility’s director of network. But right now, he said, BellSouth Mobility offers more features than PCS does. BellSouth Mobility said it will begin to offer digital service next September.
“Most of their technology is on a digital platform, which we have been providng for three years now,” said AT&T; Wireless spokesman Noel Perkins. “We feel that we have a competitive advantage with our footprint, which is our national network.”
PrimeCo said it will offer a variety of new services that will set it apart from the competition – such as the ability to instantly check monthly bills and a simpler pricing structure.
PrimeCo said it will offer only two rates for airtime – one for in-state calls and one for out-of-state calls. The first plan includes an $18-a-month fee with users paying 25 cents a minute for local calls or 44 cents a minute including long-distance charges. The second plan involves a $40-a-month fee, which includes 100 minutes of calls a month. Per-rate charges are 20 cents, or 39 cents a minute for long-distance calls.
