By James Mosieur

Embarq is running an unusual promotion for December; talk every minute of the month - at no extra charge.

A press release dated November 26th said "This year EMBARQ is giving its current and new wireless customers the gift of unlimited domestic voice wireless minutes to help them connect with friends and family all December long; that’s more than 44,600 minutes at no extra charge." According to an article on kansascity.com Harry Campbell, Embarq’s president of consumer markets said “We are finding innovative ways for Embarq wireless customers to use their minutes, and we want to attract new customers.”

Embarq was once a unit of Sprint Nextel and resells on it’s network, so they have decent coverage and the same basic service offerings. They reported 108,000 wireless subscribers at the end of the third quarter, not bad for a big company start-up…they began offering wireless service less than two years ago.

Embarq is now the nation’s fourth-largest local telephone company serving 6.5 million lines across parts of 18 states. They also service more than 1 million high-speed Internet subscribers.

Increasingly, however, companies whose revenuue relies on POTS have been facing challenges; wireless customer count is overtaking wireline. This campaign may just be the beginning of a new business model. We have all become accustomed to the large "Bucket-O-Minutes" wireless plans Embarq may find an unlimited plan is just what they need to boost subscribership.