FisamoPremium
join:2004-02-20
Apex, NC | reply to jus10
Re: We had a little theater it is time to go to the lobby. said by jus10:I don't really think that in the long term AT&T or Verizon have much to fear. They'll just jack up the data prices to cover the usage. Exactly right--they'll jack up the data price to cover the usage. The fear arises from having to build a new business model, being the first to the market with the new more expensive data plans with usage allowances that people will want (but probably won't want to pay for). However, that does raise two fears--one short term, the other long term.
In the short term, the 'innovator' company that adopts this bruise-ness model will take it in the shorts, until enough people come to the conclusion (whether right or wrong) that a commodity-priced bandwidth plan (at a sustainable price point) is best... In other words, a commodity-bandwidth style plan (e.g. all handset use is metered by data instead of minutes, whether voice, web browsing, messaging, etc) would probably have to be introduced as a loss leader (either priced lower than current PC card plans, with higher usage allowances, or both) to gain adoption, IMO.
Then, the long-term fear kicks in. The wireless companies will have to compete (or collude, such as in TXT message pricing?) based on bandwidth, caps, and service reliability, with no 'premium content' leverage.
It's reasonable to predict that we will go this route eventually, the big questions are when, and how much money will be spent to delay the inevitable? |
