Catharine Dean This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. TimesDispatch.com | Making a commitment - to a phone

   www.timesdispatch.com/business - [Cached]

   Published on: 6/24/2002   Last Visited: 6/24/2002

   Catharine Dean is general manager of the eTel Superstore.Com chain, which sells a variety of phones and related items.
   ...
   Each carrier has probably 20 to 30 rate plans, each at a different price, said Catharine Dean, general manager of eTel Superstore.Com, a Richmond-based chain of 22 wireless phone stores.
   
   "When you open up the paper and look at the ads, it is confusing because features do vary from company to company," Dean said. Individual needs are a huge part of buying a phone, she said. She'll offer something entirely different to customers who travel around the country than she'll offer to others who will make most of their calls in Richmond.
   
   A good salesperson is going to ask you where you travel, how many calls you make each day and how long the calls last, Dean said. If you travel to Nags Head, N.C., but only do it once a year for four days of fishing, you don't have a good reason to buy a regional calling package, she said.
   
   ...
   Dean of eTel said many special features that people paid for separately in the past, such as voice mail and call waiting, now generally are bundled into the monthly service packages. However, that's not always the case.
   
   Wireless phones come free or at a reduced price as part of the service package, when a customer signs a one- or two-year service contract.
   
   "This is a crazy business," Dean says of the phone equipment offerings. "It's the only industry I know of that actually sells a product below wholesale costs."
   
   Internet access is one wireless phone service that's in its infancy but appears to be growing in popularity. In a survey of the 25 largest U.S. markets, J.D. Power and Associates reported that 23 percent of subscribers reported accessing the Internet by wireless phone in 2001 compared with 12 percent a year earlier.