Sprint Cellular Gives Customers Option Of Prepay Plan

Business Wire, July 20, 1995

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 20, 1995--To better serve potential customers who are on limited budgets, fixed incomes or have limited credit, Sprint Cellular Company has unveiled a prepaid billing plan in its North Carolina and Southeast markets.

The new PrePay Plan is in response to interest from customers who want a pay-as-you-use option that helps them better manage their costs, yet takes advantage of all the benefits cellular service can provide. It also provides customers with an alternative to making a deposit for phone service and allows them to better control their cellular costs.

"As cellular quickly evolved into a mass consumer product, we realized there were still some people who felt cellular service was beyond their means, or perhaps they had been affected by financial hardships," said Robert Curran, vice president of marketing for Sprint Cellular. "We came up with the PrePay Plan, in which everyone could afford cellular service, and enjoy the convenience and safety it provides."

Sprint Cellular customers now are able to prepay for cellular phone usage by cash, check or credit card. As a customer makes and receives calls, the metered billing system rates each call and decreases the customer's balance. When the prepaid balance is depleted, customers make new payments to continue using their cellular phones.

Customers get a tone indicating their account balance is nearing depletion before their calls are routed to an interactive voice response unit, which informs the customer that service will be reinstated when they make a payment.

"Cellular service has been at the forefront of the communications revolution and we don't want it to be limited to a certain segment of the population," Curran said. "Providing service to everyone is our goal, and our prepaid option is an innovative way to meet the needs of our customers."

The company plans to offer the service in all of its markets by this fall.

Sprint Cellular is one of the fastest growing major cellular carriers in the United States, providing wireless voice and data service to more than 1.2 million customers in nearly 100 markets across 14 states.

It is a division of Sprint, a diversified international telecommunications company with more than $12.6 billion in annual revenues and the United States' only nationwide all-digital, fiber-optic network.

Its divisions provide global long distance voice, data and video products and services, and local telephone services to more than 6.4 million subscriber lines in 19 states.

CONTACT: Sprint

Rick Johnson, (O) 312/399-5153; (C) 312/802-1540

John McCain, (O) 312/399-2107; (H) 312/472-7102