Wireless Service Leaves City Limits - Industry Trend or Event

Home Office Computing, May, 2000 by Dan Costa

Cellular options are growing for once-bypassed rural residents

VOICE MAIL, TWO-WAY TEXT MESSAGING, and wireless Internet access are just a few of the carrots that cellular carriers are dangling in front of urban Americans to lure new subscribers. But in places like Idaho, Wyoming, and the Dakotas, just making a cellular call from your home office can be a challenge.

"Companies are dedicated to delivering service to rural customers, but there have been some bumps in the road," concedes Bob Roche, assistant vice president of policy and research at the industry's Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association trade organization (202-785-0081, www.wow-com.com). These bumps have been both physical and political, but even so, home office workers in the boonies have more wireless options today than ever before.

"At this point, 63.3 percent of the [U.S.] population have five or more cellular carriers to choose from," says Roche, explaining that the estimate includes both analog and digital cellular, personal communications services (PCS), and enhanced specialized mobile radio carriers such as Nextel. According to Roche, the proliferation of PCS and the continued build-out of cellular carriers has pushed service coverage and options into many formerly slighted rural areas.

The quality and range of service options for remote home office workers is also increasing. Because of the attention that has been given to PCS rollouts, cellular carriers are experimenting with new service plans, reduced rates, and new services. Features like voice mail and paging are now available in most rural markets, although digital wireless service is less widespread.

Of course, actual coverage areas can vary quite a bit. Although rural consumers can compare maps of different coverage zones when shopping for service, these maps usually don't account for natural geographic conditions that can block out service. Even the time of year can affect coverage in rural regions, says Roche: "It can be a simple matter of the signal reflecting off the leaves on the trees."

Nevertheless, some rural wireless services are even luring customers away from traditional landline phones. In Regent, N.D., for example, regional cellular carrier Western Wireless (425-586-8700, www.wwireless.com) offers a calling plan that charges a flat rate for calls within a local calling area. The plan competes directly with the local wired service, a trend that is bound to increase. A 1999 study of wireless subscribers by Peter Hart Research Associates, a Washington, D.C.-based research firm, found that 38 percent were interested in replacing their home phones with wireless.

This conversion is not always a smooth one. Last year, Western Wireless sought to deliver a similar local service in South Dakota, but that state's utilities commission denied Western's petition to become a universal communications provider, effectively blocking it from competing with local wired services. You'll have to check with your local phone and wireless carriers to see just what is available for your home-based business.

Whether you use wireless service to complement your existing phone or to replace it entirely, as a home-based worker, you have a lot to gain as wireless vendors continue extending their networks. Roche says, "We are seeing a dynamic that even if people don't sign up for the wireless service, they still get benefits because of the competitive pressure it puts on landline providers." These pressures give remote home office workers more calling options--and more important, lower bills.