Wireless plan irks telecom giants

A tiny Pennsylvania telecommunications company is raising the hackles of giants Verizon Wireless and Cingular Wireless LLC, offering consumers unlimited cellphone calls for a $10 monthly premium by exploiting the carriers' unlimited mobile-to-mobile calling plans.

The new service launched by Xcelis Communications LLC of Wayne, Pa., is built around phone numbers it has secured from Cingular and hopes to add from T-Mobile this week, followed later by Verizon and other carriers.

Xcelis customers can call a Cingular number, hear a dial tone, and place a call to any number in the United States or Canada. As long as people using the service have paid for a $40 or higher Cingular plan offering unlimited mobile-to-mobile calls to other Cingular customers, they can use Xcelis's service to make unlimited calls for $10 more a month.

For people who make several hundred minutes of calls monthly, the service would slash the cost because the airtime spent connected to the Xcelis Cingular-issued access number is covered by the unlimited mobile-to-mobile plan, and the calls to the ultimate recipient are covered in the $10 blanket price.

Cingular and Verizon, however, smell a scam -- because what gets billed by the cellphone company as a mobile-to-mobile call in most cases is really a call headed outside their network, disguised by Xcelis's use of a wireless phone number to initiate the call.

''I can't say a whole lot beyond the fact that we are investigating the service, and we don't have any comment at this time," Cingular spokeswoman Alexa G. Kaufman said yesterday. ''That could change."

Verizon spokesman Jeffrey Nelson, however, said if anyone tries to use Verizon's network for a similar service, they will get shut off. Stressing that he was speaking about any such scheme, not Xcelis specifically, Nelson said: ''They would be in violation of the terms of service with Verizon Wireless. It would be a misuse of our service under the contract. We would disconnect their ability to bypass our network."

Nelson added that ''this is not about Verizon Wireless or any other service provider being mean. This has broader implications for the wireless marketplace and for all consumers." If some subscribers can game the billing system, Nelson said, ''that's a deterrent for wireless companies to provide greater value to a broader consumer base over time."

Tim Reese, president and chief operating officer of Xcelis, disputed claims his company is simply trying to exploit a billing loophole.

''We honestly did not view it that way," Reese said. ''You have to sign up with your carrier and their base rate plan" before being able to use the Xcelis system, which Reese said uses a proprietary technology platform to complete calls cheaply enough to enable to the company to offer unlimited monthly service for $10.

After offering a free trial with 15 minutes of calls for Cingular customers last month, Reese said Xcelis has temporarily deactivated its Cingular coverage, but expects to turn it back on next week. Later this week, Reese said, Xcelis expects to begin providing the service to T-Mobile subscribers, and sometime in the future Verizon, Sprint PCS, and Nextel Communications Inc. T-Mobile officials did not return calls seeking comment.

Xcelis, a four-year-old start-up, sells a range of telecom gear, including a device called the Pantheon that lets people wirelessly redirect calls to and from their cellphones through their home or work landline phones

For Cingular and Verizon, the two biggest US wireless carriers, unlimited mobile-to-mobile calls have become a key marketing point, creating the opening for Xcelis's new service. Cingular last month completed its $41 billion takeover of AT&T Wireless Services Inc., which has allowed it to offer discounted or unlimited mobile-to-mobile calls among a group of 47 million subscribers. Verizon, likewise, heavily promotes unlimited ''IN" network calls among its 42 million subscribers.

Peter J. Howe can be reached at howe@globe.com.