Where can I find a complete listing of all plans offered in the United
States by cellular phone carriers, including nationwide, regional,
local, promotional, etc?

For example, does the FCC have a listing/file/download/etc somewhere? 
Are cell phone carriers required to register their plan offerings
somewhere like long distance rates?

I am *NOT* looking for semi-superficial services that have incomplete
rate comparisons like LowerMyBills, or similar "services" that are
mainly cell phone businesses.

Hello, KK Cool. 
 
The FCC has a listing of all Cellular Licensees from the Universal
Licensing System (ULS) in HTML format (
&lt;a href=&quot;<a href="http://wireless.fcc.gov/cellular/ulsreport.html">http://wireless.fcc.gov/cellular/ulsreport.html</a>&quot;&gt;<a href="http://wireless.fcc.gov/cellular/ulsreport.html">http://wireless.fcc.gov/cellular/ulsreport.html</a>&lt;/a&gt; ) and Excel format (
&lt;a href=&quot;<a href="http://wireless.fcc.gov/cellular/ulsreport.xls">http://wireless.fcc.gov/cellular/ulsreport.xls</a>&quot;&gt;<a href="http://wireless.fcc.gov/cellular/ulsreport.xls">http://wireless.fcc.gov/cellular/ulsreport.xls</a>&lt;/a&gt; ).
 
There are more data, updated weekly, available at: 
&lt;a href=&quot;<a href="http://wireless.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/wtb-datadump.pl">http://wireless.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/wtb-datadump.pl</a>&quot;&gt;<a href="http://wireless.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/wtb-datadump.pl">http://wireless.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/wtb-datadump.pl</a>&lt;/a&gt; 
 
A site with listings, but not price comparisons, of US wireless
carriers is:
 
Wireless Advisor, U.S. Wireless Carriers - Alphabetical Guide 
&lt;a href=&quot;<a href="http://www.wirelessadvisor.com/car_a.cfm">http://www.wirelessadvisor.com/car_a.cfm</a>&quot;&gt;<a href="http://www.wirelessadvisor.com/car_a.cfm">http://www.wirelessadvisor.com/car_a.cfm</a>&lt;/a&gt; 
 
For background, the market is dominated by six companies. According to
the marketing report &amp;quot;The State of the Wireless Union&amp;quot; by Roger Entner
(11/1/2001) of The Yankee Group, ( &lt;a href=&quot;<a href="http://www.yankeegroup.com">http://www.yankeegroup.com</a>&quot;&gt;<a href="http://www.yankeegroup.com">http://www.yankeegroup.com</a>&lt;/a&gt; )
available on the Cellular Telecommunications &amp;amp; Internet Association's
website:
 
&amp;quot;Overall, the last two years have been outstanding ones for the
wireless industry. The industry has grown from approximately 86
million subscribers at the end of 1999 to a forecasted 128 million
subscribers at the end of 2001. The Big Six nationwide carriers
control 80% of all subscribers and are destined to continue to
dominate the industry.&amp;quot;
 
&lt;a href=&quot;<a href="http://www.wow-com.com/market_research/documents/wmsv2n15.doc">http://www.wow-com.com/market_research/documents/wmsv2n15.doc</a>&quot;&gt;<a href="http://www.wow-com.com/market_research/documents/wmsv2n15.doc">http://www.wow-com.com/market_research/documents/wmsv2n15.doc</a>&lt;/a&gt; 
 
Company        Market Share       Site 
 
Verizon         24%                    
&lt;a href=&quot;<a href="http://www.verizonwireless.com/">http://www.verizonwireless.com/</a>&quot;&gt;<a href="http://www.verizonwireless.com/">http://www.verizonwireless.com/</a>&lt;/a&gt;
Cingular        17%                     &lt;a href=&quot;<a href="http://www.cingular.com">http://www.cingular.com</a>&quot;&gt;<a href="http://www.cingular.com">http://www.cingular.com</a>&lt;/a&gt;   
AT&amp;amp;T            16%                     &lt;a href=&quot;<a href="http://www.attws.com/">http://www.attws.com/</a>&quot;&gt;<a href="http://www.attws.com/">http://www.attws.com/</a>&lt;/a&gt;     
Sprint PCS      11%                     &lt;a href=&quot;<a href="http://www.sprintpcs.com">http://www.sprintpcs.com</a>&quot;&gt;<a href="http://www.sprintpcs.com">http://www.sprintpcs.com</a>&lt;/a&gt; 
Nextel           7%                     &lt;a href=&quot;<a href="http://www.nextel.com">http://www.nextel.com</a>&quot;&gt;<a href="http://www.nextel.com">http://www.nextel.com</a>&lt;/a&gt; 
VoiceStream      5%                     &lt;a href=&quot;<a href="http://www.voicestream.com">http://www.voicestream.com</a>&quot;&gt;<a href="http://www.voicestream.com">http://www.voicestream.com</a>&lt;/a&gt; 
Other           20% 
 
From their sites, you can submit information on your location and get
their rate plans.
 
Alternatively, you can use the following website to compare rate plan
prices across brands:
 
Point.com 
&lt;a href=&quot;<a href="http://www.point.com">http://www.point.com</a>&quot;&gt;<a href="http://www.point.com">http://www.point.com</a>&lt;/a&gt; 
 
MyRatePlan.com 
&lt;a href=&quot;<a href="http://www.myrateplan.com/wireless/">http://www.myrateplan.com/wireless/</a>&quot;&gt;<a href="http://www.myrateplan.com/wireless/">http://www.myrateplan.com/wireless/</a>&lt;/a&gt; 
 
Search terms used 
cell phone rate comparison 
US wireless carriers 
FCC 
 
&lt;a href=&quot;<a href="://www.google.com/search?q=cell+phone+rate+comparison">://www.google.com/search?q=cell+phone+rate+comparison</a>&quot;&gt;<a href="://www.google.com/search?q=cell+phone+rate+comparison">://www.google.com/search?q=cell+phone+rate+comparison</a>&lt;/a&gt; 
&lt;a href=&quot;<a href="://www.google.com/search?q=US+wireless+carriers">://www.google.com/search?q=US+wireless+carriers</a>&quot;&gt;<a href="://www.google.com/search?q=US+wireless+carriers">://www.google.com/search?q=US+wireless+carriers</a>&lt;/a&gt; 
&lt;a href=&quot;<a href="://www.google.com/search?q=fcc">://www.google.com/search?q=fcc</a>&quot;&gt;<a href="://www.google.com/search?q=fcc">://www.google.com/search?q=fcc</a>&lt;/a&gt; 
 
Hope this helps, 
 
Zrica  

---

Request for Answer Clarification by kkcoolj-ga on 28 Apr 2002 12:40 PDT

Although the answer provided gives some good background, it doesn't
really answer the question...I'm looking for a *COMPLETE* listing (not
a commercial site that asks for a zip code and serves up different
options available) or database file of all plans offered in the USA.
 
The websites offered in the answer are just businesses that apparently
can sell phones nationally, and have databases based on zip codes, but
these are NOT complete....only the plans they sell...
 
How can I find out if there any source for a database or listing that
gives me ***ALL*** rate plans available to the public in any given
market within the country?  (free preferred, but fee-based solutions
would be invited as well of course)
 
IF the FCC or some other authority does not require carriers to
register their plans (or the FCC doesn't make this data public), then
I guess the answer to my question would be -- there is no *COMPLETE*
listing available.  But I find it hard to believe that this would be
the case.
 
One obstacle using the websites of the top 6 carriers you kindly
identified to get their rates is that even if I could work the plans
"backward" by manually submitting zipcodes and finding all the
national/regional/local/promotional plans available, I would still be
missing the other carriers our there that account for 20% of the
market.
 
Thanks for your help.  

It does not specifically answer my question.  In fact, the answer
utilized what I explicitly EXCLUDED from possible answers.

Although the answer provided gives some good background, it doesn't
really answer the question...I'm looking for a *COMPLETE* listing (not
a commercial site that asks for a zip code and serves up different
options available) or database file of all plans offered in the USA.
 
The websites offered in the answer are just businesses that apparently
can sell phones nationally, and have databases based on zip codes, but
these are NOT complete....only the plans they sell...(which I noted in
the original question that I am not looking for these types of
resources)
 
How can I find out if there any source for a database or listing that
gives me ***ALL*** rate plans available to the public in any given
market within the country?  (free preferred, but fee-based solutions
would be invited as well of course)
 
IF the FCC or some other authority does not require carriers to
register their plans (or the FCC doesn't make this data public), then
I guess the answer to my question would be -- there is no *COMPLETE*
listing available.  But I find it hard to believe that this would be
the case.
 
One obstacle using the websites of the top 6 carriers you kindly
identified to get their rates is that even if I could work the plans
"backward" by manually submitting zipcodes and finding all the
national/regional/local/promotional plans available, I would still be
missing the other carriers our there that account for 20% of the
market.

KK Cool J,

I'm sorry my answer did not meet your expectations.

I called the FCC and learned that they do not require their licensees
to file rate plans and therefore do not have a comprehensive rate plan
list.

Their suggestion was to take the licensee list and work backwards to
compile that rate plan list. You might also cross reference this with
the wireless advisor list mentioned below.

Good luck with your business venture,

Zrica

Thanks for clarification directly with the FCC.

LOL kkcoolj-ga, you only offered $4.00, what do you expect for $4? A
complete listing? no way! bounty up some real money for a real
response and then maybe you can complain

If you don't like the price, you didn't have to file an answer.

If you were going to file an answer (vs. a comment), then you should
have answered the question.

The answer given did not specifically answer my question, nor give an
explicit answer that it is NOT available at all anywhere.