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Randy Mennie <randy_mennie@mindlink.bc.ca> wrote:

>>B. Anthony Cutteridge.Do they publish the savings against BC TEL's RealPlus >>or do they just say BC TEL?

No the "savings" for Sprint are not given against REAL Plus rates. They are
given against the time of day charges (i.e. they incorporate the time of
day discount but no other plans).

The salient points in deciding between REAL Plus and Sprint are:

Real Plus:  BC Tel has "Monthly" Specials with rates lower than their
            "time of day discounted" rates which are the basis of all
            comparisons in this post.

Sprint:     Sprint DOESN'T have monthly specials. Of course you aren't
            restricted from accessing these BC Tel "Special" Rates. All
            you have to do is dial a special code (available from BC Tel)
            first, and "charge" the particular phone call to your BC Tel
            long distance phone bill. Actually all long distance companies
            have this type of access number, so if you aren't afraid to punch
            in long sequences of numbers and don't mind keeping track of 
            several phone bills at once, you can belong to more than one 
            discount plan, with more than one company, and use the cheapest    
            combination of long distance plans that match your calling 
            patterns. For example you could call just three numbers with 
            Sprint, and  call all the rest through BC Tel and their Real Plus 
            plan, or figure out some other combination that suits you.

Real Plus:  20 % off the top THREE NUMBERS *in terms of the AMOUNT spent* on
            your phone bill. This applies only to numbers in the US and
            Canada. Furthermore, this  only applies if your total LONG DISTANCE
            CHARGES FOR THE MONTH are more than $15. If your long distance 
            charges are less than $15 in a particular month, you get nothing
            in terms of a "real plus" discount.

Sprint:     50% off the top THREE numbers *in terms of the AMOUNT spent* (as
            of January 1st; till Jan 1 the discount was in terms of TIME) on
            your phone bill. THERE IS NO MINIMUM monthly amount of Long 
            Distance calls you have to make in order to qualify for the 
            discount. Furthermore the top three numbers break down as follows:
            ONE phone number in the US, ONE in Canada and ONE OVERSEAS. If
            you have made no overseas phone calls in a particular phone bill, 
            OR if your top overseas phone number was for a lesser amount than
            your second highest Canadian number, then the second 50% discount 
            applies to this second Canadian number. PLEASE NOTE: There is no 
            provision for substitution if you fail to make a long distance
            call to the US. In the case where you have made no US calls, you
            will receive the 50% discount on ONLY TWO (ONE Canadian and ONE 
            Overseas, or TWO Canadian--see above) phone numbers. Please also
            note that, unlike BC Tel, the top number discount is 50, not 20, 
            percent.

Real Plus:  15 % discount on all the rest of your long distance phone calls.
            NOTE: NO discount unless you meet the $15 minimum LONG DISTANCE
            charges for the month.

Sprint:     15% discount on all the rest of your long distance phone calls.
            NOTE: NO minimum.

Real Plus:  A complicated "points" incentive plan. Your points can be converted
            to CASH, Canadian airlines points, AirCanada points, or General
            Motors points (towards a GM car). You earn A POINT FOR EVERY
            PENNY YOU SPEND ON LONG DISTANCE. From what I understand, no 
            monthly minimum applies to points accumulations.

            If I understood correctly, for GM points it appears to be a 5% 
            translation of your BC Tel points to GM points. Unlike GM, the   
            conversion of the points to cash or airline points follows a 
            "geometric" type progression. For example, converting points to 
            cash we have:
            
            SPEND     EARN XXXXXX POINTS   GET CASH BACK AFTER A YEAR 

            $  200       20,000               $ 5  i.e. 2.5% of overall LD bill
            $  600       60,000               $30  i.e. 5% of overall LD bill
            $  900       90,000               $90  i.e. 10% of overall LD bill
         >= $5,000   >= 500,000               15% of your overall LD bill 

Sprint:     No additional incentive plan.


Thus, for people who spend enough to make the points "rewards" worthwhile,
AND, if these people call a large collection of phone numbers (not 2, or
3 main numbers where Sprint's straight 50% remains superior) I see a 
situation where Real Plus might be superior to Sprint's plan--i.e. with Real 
Plus people can conceivably get a total 30% discount on ALL their phone 
numbers, with the top three US and Canadian numbers receiving a discount of
35% --these figures apply only if the total long distance charges in a year
are more than $5,000. Sprint's top discount, as discussed, is 50% for the top 
three numbers, and a flat 15% for the rest.

BTW, for people who travel, especially overseas, it appears that Sprint's 
Phonecard is not as useful as BC Tel's Calling Card. Furthermore you can use
BC Tel's card to make a local phone calls. Then again, nothing is stopping you
from having two phone cards, just like I do.

In any case, I use Sprint and average a discount on ALL of my LD phone calls
of  about 40-45%, which is clearly more than I could get out of the Real Plus
Plan.

All the best,
Alec              _____________________________________
                      this message originated from:
                   Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
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