In a press release today, Verizon has announced the ability for those with Family or Business Share Plans to pool numbers from different area codes together on one account starting today.
Previously, someone wishing to have a shared plan with different numbers would have to have all numbers on the account originate from the same area code, causing headaches for those that wish to keep local numbers in different areas of the country for business or personal reasons.
This new feature allows people with different area codes to share minutes on the same service plan without having to give up a phone number, and increases flexibility for business wishing to maintain employees around the country.
Hmm. My wife and I have had a Family Share plan for over a year, and her area code is 732 and mine is 973. Perhaps this announcement is for larger distances than 2 area codes in the same state …?
What I can’t understand is why people find this as new news. Sprint had been doing this for years, like 6yrs allowing multiple area codes on one account under a family plan. To other companies like at&t and verizon have been way behind on this for years.
Sprint had been doing this for atleast 6yrs. So for larger companies like verizon just now getting on with this is old news.
I can think of many things Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile have been doing better than Sprint for six years… that doesn’t make it old news simply because someone else has been offering something for awhile.
There are many Verizon customers that will now be able to consolidate multiple accounts in multiple areas on a single FamilyShare plan… and that’s a big win for consumers since it will now pressure AT&T to offer the same.
As to the initial poster, yes, Verizon has allowed some accounts with area codes near one-another to share a single account. This is all due to how long distance area codes were divided up decades ago. When Verizon (and Cingular) deployed their respective billing systems, it was segmented so that customers in these different markets were essentially on different billing systems… the accounts couldn’t be combined because of that.
Sprint was the newest national carrier at the time, so their billing system could support unified billing.
Oddly enough, Legacy AT&T Wireless had offered this ability since rolling out family plans. However, when Cingular acquired AT&T Wireless, they disabled the functionality.
This is pretty funny….I live in NJ (area code 609), and I added my sister to my family plan. She lives in VA (are code 540). I did this about 1.5 years ago (near the end of 2006). Everyone I talked to said it couldn’t be done. I found a manager who knew “the right stuff,” and it was done in 30 seconds.
There is one other interesting side note to this. At first, the monthly bill showed all applicable taxes for my sister’s phone being paid to the state of VA, and not NJ. About 9 months ago, all the tax payments (except for the federal tax) for my sister’s phone reverted back to NJ. In addition, sometimes her detailed calls appear on the bill. Sometimes they don’t.