European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 23, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse Friday March 23 2007 stars and stripes Page 13 your Money sprint testing unlimited wireless Call usage plan by Bruce Meyerson the associated press new York sprint Sextel is testing a novel cellular plan in the san Francisco Bay area that Fea Tures unlimited Call time text messages and inter net Access on a Mobile phone for a month while not inexpensive the unusual approach to pricing wireless service could carry profound consequences for the Industry if it proves popular and sprint decides to Roll it out nationally sprint Sextel corp already began moving in that direction in january with a pricey unlimited calling plan for High volume users there Are some regional carriers and Niche ser vice providers offering unlimited plans but sprints plan appears to be the first mainstream wireless of Fering of this sort in the United states the last substantial shift in cellular pricing came nearly a decade ago when the old wireless started wiping away the distinction Between local and Long distance with the launch of a National Call ing plan cell subscribers Are conditioned to count min utes keeping an Eye on the clock during Calls or waiting for off Peak hours mindful of the Steep sur charges that come with exceeding your monthly Al Lowance this contrasts sharply with the landline world where the rapid spread of unlimited plans Over the past decade has created a Carefree ally Uchneat mentality for local Lon distance and even International Calls in some cases the consumer embrace of unlimited calling plans for landline phones popular even though Many users might save Money by paying per minute fees instead suggests that cell users might jump at the Opportunity to free themselves from time worries de spite the fact that most customers dont use up All their minutes each month one potential problem for cellular companies is that wireless networks have far less Call capacity than the fiber optic cables of the traditional Tele phone system while network capacity has grown carriers worry about a repeat of wireless experience with digital one rate that National calling plan proved so popular that the company network handle the surge of new users and Lon distance Call traffic in key markets such As new York damaging its reputation for years to follow for sprint the new attempt to set itself apart from the pack comes at a crucial time the company has stumbled badly following the 2005 merger of sprint and Sextel hundreds of thousands of High paying Sextel sub scribers have fled due to service Quality issues on that network and sprint has struggled to compete with Verizon wireless and incs singular wireless sprint say How Long it plans to offer the unlimited bundle in the san Francisco Bay area or when a decision might come on a wider trial or Roll out the potential savings from the bundle would de Pend on the Cost of the calling plan a user is switch ing from sprint already offers unlimited text messaging packages starting at a month and unlimited data plans starting at a month the trial package can be expanded to include unlimited wireless internet Access for a Laptop for More half the usual rate for a monthly total of tuesdays Market summary Exchange rates indexes Ltd High Low chg 1279593 1068332 Dow Jones industrials 1228810 521142 413472 Dow Jones transportation 484254 50199 38097 Dow Jones utilities 49107 946362 770811 nose composite 217989 180065 amex 214012 253142 201278 Nash a composite 146157 121929 87089 71053 141094 83949 52 83001 66858 Russell 1482876 1224990 do Wilshire 1 nose Nash a most Active m of name Yokoo last last Hal Libens 977203 3050 14097 Motorola 423651 1882 forum 306623 788 430641 7884 spongy 240730 5770 time am 298898 2025 14070 Geneles 261013 3477 and 252300 1341 31 Pfizer 245489 2554 135610 3557 107233 5422 68 Della diam 72465 12282 Cisco 418635 2634 02 sol Ctm 243831 317 02 Exxon by 233462 7200 on2 3416 56629 145 pm cup 208881 1302 3924 key defense stocks key Mutual name div be last chg 19 8760 13 Armor holdings 18 6443 Boeing 140 32 9016 invest Greco Fidelity invest Grolnic Fidelity spartan 3093 7 1 computer Dences 27 5212 general dynamics 116 7 7842 general electric 112 7 3477 Halliburton 30 14 3050 66 funds a Erlna p Amer Century inv Ultra Fidelity invest Amorso Fidelity invest 2712 1639 Namuki Harris corp 20 497 Allied signal 100 19 4714 07 100 20 8490 21 Lockheed Martin 140 17 9838 59 nor throng 17 7396 invest us i 1094 aim investments a const p 2643 fms a Sec Para 3963 aim investments a Char tap 1555 19 ump a Liri to rav Theon 96 20 5322 08 Roslyn to u6 18 6130 Seq corp 2 Texas instruments 16 11 3135 tort run in 155 20 9214 advisor Fidelity advisor t Groppo Putnam funds a Globe qty p Fidelity advisor 3579 1117 6264 ice Ulii United technologies 106 18 6524 Abbett a Devota p funds a gig a military rates japanese yen March South korean won March euro costs March Dollar buys March British Pound March commercial rates Bahrain British Canada China Denmark Egypt Hong Kong Hungary Israel Japan Kuwait Dinar Norway Philippines Poland saudi Arabia Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey new military Exchange rates Are those available to customers at military Bank ing facilities in the country of issuance for Japan South Korea Germany the Netherlands and the United kingdom for no local currency Exchange rates in purchasing British pounds in Germa Check with your i Cal military Bank ing facility commercial rates Are inter Bank rates provided for reference when buying currency All figures Are foreign currencies to one Dollar except for the British Pound which is represented in dollars Pound and the euro which is dollars euro precious metals new York merc close Gold Silver 413285 interest rates prime rate825 discount rate625 Federal funds Market rate 525 3month 30year bond472 sources the associated press Bank of America transmission woes May not be of but your automatic Iran Mission is electronically con trolled Aad ftps those elect can in controls that Are causing the problem Tom didst mention whether the dear Tom and Ray my 1998 Subaru Outback with an automatic transmission has started not going into second gear sometimes it started five Days ago i have driven Only Short trips of a mile or two Dur ing that time about a third of the time when i should be tit Start moving again from Stop Means that the transmissions signs or traffic lights the Noom Puter has stored a fault Gine sounds like ifs Stra Hiing code which can be read by a and it wont go into second Mechanic Ray two car has something Click and Clack Tom and Ray Matuozzi Light a your dashboard is it gear i have to manually shift into second which it then does afterwards i shift into drive this situation worries me especially because we Are supposed to drive across the country new Joritz to Oregon in a few weeks any idea what it is Suzanne Tom Well Suzanne youre probably Reading this in a trans Mission repair shop some where in the Midwest sorry about that Ray actually it might be relatively inexpensive to fix As transmission repairs go since you can manually shift the car into second gear by using the gear selector that tells me the transmission itself is probably called an inhibitor switch which tells the transmissions computer what gear youve selected if the setting for drive is not forking for any reason the computer will default to first gear it sounds like that whats happening to your car Tom so have a Mechanic put a scanner on your car and Check for fault codes i suspect its the inhibitor switch and believe it or not Suzanne when it comes to trans Mission repairs this is extremely Good news enjoy the rest of your trip got a question about cars write to Click and Clack in care of this newspaper or email them by visiting the car talk web site at and sensibility Money tip of the Day saving is smart planning Colorado Springs Colo Catherine wants an addition on her House Chris wants Money to invest every month and Kim wants to help pay part of her childrens College tuition these people All ask the same question How can i find the Money the worst answer is also the simplest borrow it the Best answer is also the hard est spend less and save More borrowing or More exactly failing to take responsibility to pay Back Loans is sinking Ameri cans further in debt the Commerce department reported last month that the Sav Ings rate for 2006 was a Nega Tive 1 percent the result of peo ple increasing their borrowing the debt Hole for americans More than doubled from 2005s negative 04 percent creating spending and Sav Ings goals is the safest Way to find the Money you want for whats important in your life most financial experts say these goals dont begin with just juggling income and expenses but rather require a head examination our financial Well being has Little to do with the amount of Money we earn writes Alvin Hall financial educator and author of a new Book your Money or your life Hall preaches that emotions Are the determinant in our Finan Cial successes and failures his books takes Consumers through each stage of their life and How Money fits in in his Book he writes about Steps to take to learn your Money habits including keep a diary of your spend ing and the emotions that go with it at the end of the Day re View How you feel about the expenses and whether you could have gone without Analyse one credit card Bill from the past year put a Check Mark by the purchases that still bring you pleasure today youll get an idea of what you can Stop buying test your self disc Pline Experiment by giving up buying one item you enjoy this exercise also increases your Sel Confidence when you Dis cover you can do without the item
