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American Morning
Minding Your Business: Cell Phone Independence Day
Aired November 24, 2003 - 07:54 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The big cell phone switch is finally here. So, does that mean there won't be any more hang ups?
Here with the story is Andy Serwer 'Minding Your Business" this morning.
Good morning.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning to you.
Yes, there will be hang ups. And, Jack, 150 million Americans have cell phones these days. So, you don't need to feel left out.
O'BRIEN: He's not one of them.
SERWER: You don't need to feel left out.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Good for them, that's terrific. I'm happy for them.
SERWER: Anyway, it is portability day. You've been hearing about this for months -- the day that you can switch wireless services, cell phone services and keep your phone number. However, there are some quirks. It hasn't been done yet. There are things to be worked out.
Let's talk about some tips here. First of all, contact your new carrier first. If you want to go from Sprint to AT&T, call AT&T up. Don't cancel with Sprint yet. It's supposed to take 2.5 hours, Soledad. But, of course, no one has done it yet, so we don't really know. If you're switching from a landline to wireless, it will take a few days.
And here's the catch right off the bat: You have to buy a new phone, because there are different kinds of services -- you know, analog, GSM. So, the likelihood is you will probably have to buy a new phone.
And another big wrinkle, of course, is you probably have a contract with your old service. on average it will cost you $175 to cancel the contract. Find the termination date of your contract. That's a biggie.
O'BRIEN: You will pay up if you do it outside of the contract.
SERWER: That's right.
O'BRIEN: Let's talk about some of the incentives, because obviously they're trying to lure people into doing these switching.
SERWER: Right, right. And this you're going to see more and more. T Mobile, for instance, freaky Friday is free. You can call free all day Friday. AT&T will give you a new phone every 12 months. There is a bit of a catch there. You have to have a two-year contract. And Cingular and Sprint doing some off-peak stuff.
I want to just get -- we have to go, but I want to quickly get to the markets. Down last week...
O'BRIEN: Take your time. Go ahead.
SERWER: All right, down last week. Thank you.
O'BRIEN: Sure.
SERWER: And just something else I want to note here is Delta Airlines' CEO Leo Mullin apparently is leaving the company. We're going to be following that story and see what's going on there.
O'BRIEN: OK, we'll hear about that in a little bit.
SERWER: We will. Thank you.
O'BRIEN: Thanks, Andy. Appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired November 24, 2003 - 07:54 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The big cell phone switch is finally here. So, does that mean there won't be any more hang ups?
Here with the story is Andy Serwer 'Minding Your Business" this morning.
Good morning.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning to you.
Yes, there will be hang ups. And, Jack, 150 million Americans have cell phones these days. So, you don't need to feel left out.
O'BRIEN: He's not one of them.
SERWER: You don't need to feel left out.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Good for them, that's terrific. I'm happy for them.
SERWER: Anyway, it is portability day. You've been hearing about this for months -- the day that you can switch wireless services, cell phone services and keep your phone number. However, there are some quirks. It hasn't been done yet. There are things to be worked out.
Let's talk about some tips here. First of all, contact your new carrier first. If you want to go from Sprint to AT&T, call AT&T up. Don't cancel with Sprint yet. It's supposed to take 2.5 hours, Soledad. But, of course, no one has done it yet, so we don't really know. If you're switching from a landline to wireless, it will take a few days.
And here's the catch right off the bat: You have to buy a new phone, because there are different kinds of services -- you know, analog, GSM. So, the likelihood is you will probably have to buy a new phone.
And another big wrinkle, of course, is you probably have a contract with your old service. on average it will cost you $175 to cancel the contract. Find the termination date of your contract. That's a biggie.
O'BRIEN: You will pay up if you do it outside of the contract.
SERWER: That's right.
O'BRIEN: Let's talk about some of the incentives, because obviously they're trying to lure people into doing these switching.
SERWER: Right, right. And this you're going to see more and more. T Mobile, for instance, freaky Friday is free. You can call free all day Friday. AT&T will give you a new phone every 12 months. There is a bit of a catch there. You have to have a two-year contract. And Cingular and Sprint doing some off-peak stuff.
I want to just get -- we have to go, but I want to quickly get to the markets. Down last week...
O'BRIEN: Take your time. Go ahead.
SERWER: All right, down last week. Thank you.
O'BRIEN: Sure.
SERWER: And just something else I want to note here is Delta Airlines' CEO Leo Mullin apparently is leaving the company. We're going to be following that story and see what's going on there.
O'BRIEN: OK, we'll hear about that in a little bit.
SERWER: We will. Thank you.
O'BRIEN: Thanks, Andy. Appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
