Cingular (News - Alert) Wireless subscribers who also subscribe to AT&T wireline services will now be able to carry out free calls between any other subscribers belonging to these networks. The telecom will bundle these subscribers into what the company calls “the nation’s largest unlimited free calling community,” dubbed the AT&T (News - Alert) Unity Plan.


The new plan, which will be available beginning this Sunday, January 21, in the company’s 22-state service area, includes subscriber-to-subscriber home, business and wireless calling. AT&T Unity customers can call or receive calls for free from any AT&T wireless and wireline phone numbers nationwide without using up their wireline or wireless Anytime minutes.

“AT&T Unity is the ideal way to introduce our customers to the real power of combining wireless and wireline services into an appealing offering that delivers value, flexibility and convenience,” AT&T’s chairman and CEO Edward E (News - Alert). Whitacre Jr. said in a statement released on Friday. “More than two years ago, Cingular Wireless, now the new AT&T, raised the bar by creating the largest unlimited wireless calling community in America, a feat no competitor has been able to duplicate. With AT&T Unity, we are raising the bar even higher by adding unlimited domestic calling to and from AT&T wireline customers.”

To be eligible for the new AT&T Unity plan, a customer needs to subscribe to both AT&T wireless service and unlimited AT&T local and long distance wireline services. The bundle is comprised of unlimited local and long distance plans and an AT&T Unity wireless plan. AT&T Unity plan subscribers will conveniently receive a single bill for their AT&T wireline and wireless services.

The new calling plans will be available to qualifying AT&T residential, small business and wireless customers in most of the company's incumbent local exchange areas, including Alabama, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas, Tennessee and Wisconsin.

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Johanne Torres is contributing editor for TMCnet and Internet Telephony magazine. To see more articles by Johanne Torres, please visit her columnist page.