Alltel customers coming over to Verizon Wireless can breath a sigh of relief as it appears Big Red will be adding a new My Circle-like feature to its calling plans. The new Friends & Family feature will be available starting February 15th and allows you to add 5 or 10 numbers to a Friends & Family calling group. Calls to and from this Friends & Family calling group will not count against your plan minutes. To be eligible for this feature, you must have either a Nationwide Single Line plan with 900 or more Anytime Minutes (minimum $59.99/month) or a Nationwide Family Share Plan with 1,400 or more Anytime Minutes (minimum $89.99 for 2 lines/month). An individual line is able to add five contacts to its Friends & Family calling group while a Family Share line is able to add 10 contacts that are shared among plan members.
It is somewhat disappointing that these features are added to the higher minutes and higher priced calling plans and not the basement 450 minutes Nationwide Single plan or the 700 minutes Family Share plan. Also disappointing is the fact that the 10 numbers in the Friends & Family calling group are shared among plan members and not allocated as 5 to 10 numbers per line. Regardless, this is a nice addition for current customers who already subscribe to the eligible plans and should also help those Alltel customers who were disappointed to lose the benefits of their My Circle plans. Best of all, this additional feature is free!
Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
