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Can WorldCom Wireless legally discontinue their paging and messaging services? |
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Can I choose another service provider? |
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Will my paging service be interrupted if I activate with SkyTel? |
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Will I be able to keep my pager phone number (PIN) if I activate with SkyTel? |
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If I am renting a pager from WorldCom today, will SkyTel pick up the rental contract? |
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Is there any change to my coverage or any existing features such as
Voice Mail? |
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Are there any "hidden" fees such as activation or connection charges? |
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Will my service rates change with SkyTel? |
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How will I be billed? |
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I have never been billed for overcalls or usage. How does that work? |
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What is a character, and what is a message block? What do they have to do with the messages I receive or send? |
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Will I continue to receive my sports information scores and my weather updates? |
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Will my unit's email address remain the same after I activate with SkyTel? |
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How do I make changes to my account? |
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Can SkyTel consolidate my cellular and paging services in one bill? |
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Who do I call for questions regarding my WorldCom Wireless account or invoice? |
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Should I make all my payments to SkyTel or to WorldCom? By mail? By phone? |
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Can WorldCom Wireless legally discontinue their paging and messaging services? |
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Yes. The FCC will normally authorize this proposed discontinuance of service unless it is shown that customers would be unable to receive service or a reasonable substitute from another carrier, or that the public convenience and necessity is otherwise adversely affected. If you wish to object, you should file your comments within 15 days after receipt of this notification. Address them to the Federal Communications Commission, Washington, DC 20554, referencing the section 63.71 application of WorldCom Wireless. Comments should include specific information about the impact of this proposed discontinuance upon you or your company, including any inability to acquire reasonable substitute service.
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Can I choose another service provider? |
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While you are free to purchase paging and messaging from other service providers, it is unlikely that any other provider will be able to offer you the advantages that SkyTel brings to the table. WorldCom Wireless acted as a reseller of SkyTel services, and the units they sold operate on SkyTel frequencies. If you elect to move your business to another provider, you will, in all likelihood, need to purchase a new unit with a different PIN, and you may not be able to get a similar rate plan or coverage.
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Will my paging service be interrupted if I activate with SkyTel? |
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If you sign up with SkyTel by October 7, 2002, you will experience no interruptions in service.
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If I am renting a pager from WorldCom today, will SkyTel pick up the rental
contract? |
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As an added bonus for activating your unit with SkyTel, you will now own any unit you were previously renting, reducing your monthly cost by the rental amount.
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Will I be able to keep my pager phone number (PIN) if I activate with SkyTel? |
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By signing up prior to October 7, 2002, you will be able to retain your current PIN.
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Is there any change to my coverage or any existing features such as
Voice Mail? |
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If you sign up before October 7, 2002, your coverage and features will not be affected unless you choose to discontinue certain features during activation. Your personal greetings and security codes will remain the same.
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Are there any "hidden" fees such as activation or connection charges? |
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As long as you sign up before October 7, 2002, activation (connection) fees will be waived. That represents a $20 savings for each PIN you activate with SkyTel.
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Will my service rates change with SkyTel? |
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As you provide information during sign up, SkyTel will display the services you presently have at the corresponding SkyTel rates. Any features that were included at no cost (such as Personal Access Numbers) on your WorldCom Wireless account will not be charged on your SkyTel account. Any activation fees already paid on your current features will not be charged again.
IMPORTANT: SkyTel charges usage and overcalls on some service plans and features. See the following two questions for additional information.
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How will I be billed? |
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In order to ensure that all WorldCom Wireless customers can activate with SkyTel in a timely manner, SkyTel will not require a new credit check for every customer. Instead, the credit card of your choice will be automatically billed each month. Credit card billing is required for these accounts. Your credit card will be charged after your monthly charges are calculated (on the weekend following the last Friday of each month) and you will receive a statement showing the amount charged. SkyTel bills one month in advance for base paging services and features.
Usage charges and overcalls are billed in arrears.
For example: If your SkyTel plan is for SkyWord® 1Way Text paging with the Nationwide Now® temporary coverage expansion feature, your base paging services and features will be charged in advance -- $9.99 per month for 500, 100-character
message blocks and $1.00 per month for Nationwide Now®. If, during the previous month, you received 522 pages and 10 of those were while Nationwide Now® was enabled, your invoice would reflect those charges "in arrears;" 22 "overcall" messages at 5¢ each ($1.10), plus 10 nationwide messages at 95¢ each ($9.95).
Using the example above, your December statement might look something like this:
| Qty. |
Description |
Each |
Extended |
| 1 |
SkyWord service - base (December) |
9.99 |
9.99 |
| 1 |
Nationwide Now® service (December) |
1.00 |
1.00 |
| 22 |
Overcall messages (November) |
0.05 |
1.10 |
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10
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Nationwide Now® messages (November) |
0.95 |
9.50 |
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TOTAL DUE |
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$21.59 |
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I have never been billed for overcalls or usage. How does that work? |
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SkyTel bills one month in arrears for overcalls and usage.
Overcalls: Your SkyTel service plan indicates the number of
message blocks included in your base plan. In the example above, you can receive as many as 500, 100-character messages every month (or roughly 17 messages every day) for $9.99. Messages received beyond the 500-message allotment (22 in the example) are billed a 5¢ "overcall" fee per message, or $1.10 for the month.
Usage: Some SkyTel features carry a nominal monthly fee and a flat, per-message rate when you use the feature. In the example above, you pay $1.00 per month for access to Nationwide Now® "on-demand" coverage expansion feature. This fee applies whether or not you use the feature during any given month. In the example, you received 10 messages in November while the feature was enabled, and each message was charged a 95¢ usage fee, or $9.95 for the month.
Keeping track of usage and overcalls: When you activate your service with SkyTel, you are automatically
pre-approved for SkyTel On-Line Account Manager. You can view your month-to-date usage anytime,
on-line at www.skytel.com.
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What is a character, and what is a
message block? What do they have to do with the messages I receive or send? |
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A character is any letter, number, punctuation mark, special symbol (@, $, %, etc.), or space.
A message block is any set of characters sent in a single transmission from one (1) to 100 characters*.
You can be charged for several message blocks with each message transmission. For example: 240 characters is the maximum receivable transmission length for 1Way text (alphanumeric) units, so a single transmission of 240 characters would count as three (3) message blocks: two (2) 100-character blocks, plus one (1) additional block for the other 40 characters. For advanced messaging units, each transmission sent or received can be up to 500 characters, so a single 500-character transmission would count as five (5) 100-character message blocks.
Characters and message blocks do not apply to numeric units.
*SkyWord Plus message blocks are a maximum of 10 characters each.
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Will I continue to receive my sports information scores and my weather updates? |
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Because you will be keeping your current PIN when you activate your SkyTel account, any information services that you receive now will also be received after your SkyTel activation. With SkyTel, you will receive up to 4 daily news updates at no charge, and advanced messaging customers will also be able to "choose their news" at
www.skytel.com/customnewscasts.
NOTE: Any information services provided by sources other than SkyTel will count toward your monthly
message block allotment. In order to cancel these services, you must contact the individual information providers.
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Will my unit's email address remain the same after I activate with SkyTel? |
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Yes. In addition, you can also use [YourPIN]@skytel.com, and you can set up a personal email address for your unit (e.g., Mary@skytel.com) in your on-line service profile through the Customer Service area on www.skytel.com.
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How do I make changes to my account? |
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After you have signed up for services, please allow 24 hours for the SkyTel systems to be updated. After this period, you may contact SkyUser at SkyUser@skytel.com for questions regarding SkyTel services or your SkyTel invoice. Don't forget that you also have quick on-line access through the SkyTel On-Line Account
Manager.
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Can SkyTel consolidate my cellular and paging services in one bill? |
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No. Your SkyTel services will be billed separate from any other wireless services you may have.
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Who do I call for questions regarding my WorldCom Wireless account or invoice? |
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SkyTel cannot support any WorldCom Wireless account or billing issues. Please continue to call the number printed on your WorldCom Wireless invoice for any questions about your WorldCom Wireless account.
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Should I make all my payments to SkyTel or to WorldCom? By mail? By phone? |
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You should remit any balances due on a WorldCom Wireless invoice to WorldCom Wireless using the standard methods of payment outlined on your invoice. Your new SkyTel account will be billed to the credit card of your choice as determined during the activation process.
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