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AT&T: We'll Soon Be Charging You More For Wireless Broadband
Company wants 'variable pricing,' admits few will pay for iPad 3G

AT&T is once again dropping hints that the carrier wants to change (read: increase) wireless data pricing. Many investors have been pressuring the company to ditch the unlimited $30 iPhone data plan, and instead replace it with some kind of metered billing model. That's largely because as carriers begin to open their networks to push IM clients and mobile VoIP, they'll be losing a lot of money on voice and SMS. The only way to counter those losses will be to charge more money for mobile data. Enter AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, who this week tells Reuters the changes will be coming soon:

quote:
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Stephenson expects changes in how the wireless industry prices its mobile data services going forward, with heavy data users being charged more. Smartphone users currently pay a monthly fee of about $30 for unlimited data. "For the industry, we'll progressively move toward more of what I call variable pricing so the heavy (use) consumers will pay more than the lower consumers," Stephenson said.
What Stephenson calls "variable pricing" is confused by many to mean per-byte billing. While the idea of only paying for what you use sounds great to those not paying attention, the plans AT&T and Verizon actually wind up implementing are very carefully crafted to drive most user bills ever higher. Verizon for instance now offers users the option of paying either $9.95 for a phone data plan with a 25MB cap (20 cents per additional MB, 125 MB maximum), or $30 for "unlimited" (which actually means 5 GB a month) service. This is in addition to SMS, voice, and other monthly fees.

These plans really aren't about making "heavy users" pay more, they're about getting everybody to pay more. Since most users consume much more than 25 MB per month, they'll all wind up upgrading to the more expensive plan in the belief it offers a better consumer value. But suddenly, here you are paying more than $100 a month for voice, data and SMS plan when you're really not a particularly heavy user. Most users are somewhere around 200 MB a month, though you'll note the absence of a $20, 300 MB plan.

My expectation is that there's not going to be a lot of people out there looking for another subscription
-AT&T CEO on iPad 3G
Meanwhile, you've got AT&T and Verizon also now requiring that everybody have an SMS and data plan on their phone -- whether they actually use data or not (for AT&T, just smartphones require data plans, for Verizon, every phone now does). What's designed to look like value and choice is in most cases the exact opposite. When thinking of 3G pricing, picture a giant invisible funnel that propels users toward one inevitable outcome: paying more money.

Whatever pricing emerges, eventually users will realize they want to connect multiple devices to these 3G and 4G networks without having to pay a subscription fee for each and every device. While some people think the $15 for 250 MB a month or $30 for unlimited 3G pricing of the iPad is a "great" deal, most people simply aren't going to want to pay yet another monthly fee just for iPad bandwidth after shelling out for both home and wireless connections. Amazingly enough AT&T agrees, Stephenson saying he sees the iPad as a largely Wi-Fi device as a result.
quote:
"My expectation is that there's not going to be a lot of people out there looking for another subscription," he said during a webcast of an investor conference, adding that the device would be a mainly "Wi-Fi driven product."
Even the company that's providing the iPad's 3G functionality doesn't think you're willing to pony up the extra cash, which is saying something. Whatever changes AT&T has in store for their bandwidth pricing, make absolutely no mistake that the end result is going to be you paying more money for mobile bandwidth, regardless of whether you use 100 MB a month, or four gigabytes a month. It's absolutely essential to carrier execs and investors eager to compensate for lost voice and SMS revenues. Anybody claiming otherwise is either selling you something or not reading the fine print.
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BillRoland
Premium Member
join:2001-01-21
Ocala, FL

BillRoland

Premium Member

Will end up hurting them

Metered billing only works if everybody decides to play in the game. Love them or hate them, I doubt very much Sprint would be willing to do that, it would be a clear differentiation and selling point they've been lacking.

NOCMan
MadMacHatter
Premium Member
join:2004-09-30
Colorado Springs, CO

NOCMan

Premium Member

Re: Will end up hurting them

Average iPhone user uses about 600 megs of bandwidth a month. Strangely Android devices consumer more bandwidth but it's only 800 megs.

Sprint has become a non-entity to the AT&T and Verizon control of the telecommunications infrastructure of the US. They're in lockstep on pricing and promo's and you can guarantee that nothing will change for the good for end users until the government gets the spine to deal with it.

tiger72
SexaT duorP
Premium Member
join:2001-03-28
Saint Louis, MO

1 recommendation

tiger72

Premium Member

Re: Will end up hurting them

Or until users get the spine to switch to Sprint or T-Mobile.
All fanboism aside, Sprint and TMO each provide NATIVE voice coverage to 90+% of all Americans. Sprint provides 3g data to most of that same 90%. T-Mobile provides 3g data to about 65% of Americans.

They both have very extensive roaming agreements for the times when Americans travel to areas that aren't near cities. Hell, Sprint roams on Verizon's network for those couple days a year when you're out of VZW's coverage area. And T-Mobile's smaller coverage area still covers all interstates and most other major highways nationwide.

If you're in that last 10% of Americans who lives in rural America, keep your VZW service. For the rest of Americans, if you really don't like ATT and VZW's business practices, then put your money where your mouth is and switch carriers. VZW and ATT will continue to try to screw over customers for as long as those customers keep paying them.
Necronomikro
join:2005-09-01

Necronomikro

Member

Re: Will end up hurting them

I don't live in a particularly rural area, but, due to the trees, etc. near my place, the only decent carrier is ATT. Not even Verizon picks up well at my place.

AT&T has 3g in Benton, AR... TMO doesn't have it in the entire state. VZ has plenty of areas covered. Unsure on Sprint.
wierdo
join:2001-02-16
Miami, FL

wierdo

Member

Re: Will end up hurting them

said by Necronomikro:

I don't live in a particularly rural area, but, due to the trees, etc. near my place, the only decent carrier is ATT. Not even Verizon picks up well at my place.

AT&T has 3g in Benton, AR... TMO doesn't have it in the entire state.
T-Mo has 3G in Benton County. It craps out south of Lowell before getting down to Springdale and Fayetteville, though.

I thought they also had it in LR now, but I could be mistaken.

Sprint has had what little Arkansas coverage they have overlaid with EV-DO for some time now.

at&t is generally very strong in Arkansas, though. Better than Alltel/VZW in most places, even.
Necronomikro
join:2005-09-01

Necronomikro

Member

Re: Will end up hurting them

Their 3g coverage (TMO) is fairly new to this area. Didn't know that they'd completed the buildout. None in Benton, however.

Still, ATT is the only one that covers my house adequately, and that's with EDGE. Go about a mile towards town, however, and I can pick up 3g.
cmaenginsb1
Premium Member
join:2001-03-19
Palmdale, CA

cmaenginsb1 to tiger72

Premium Member

to tiger72
said by tiger72:

Or until users get the spine to switch to Sprint or T-Mobile.
All fanboism aside, Sprint and TMO each provide NATIVE voice coverage to 90+% of all Americans. Sprint provides 3g data to most of that same 90%. T-Mobile provides 3g data to about 65% of Americans.

They both have very extensive roaming agreements for the times when Americans travel to areas that aren't near cities. Hell, Sprint roams on Verizon's network for those couple days a year when you're out of VZW's coverage area. And T-Mobile's smaller coverage area still covers all interstates and most other major highways nationwide.

If you're in that last 10% of Americans who lives in rural America, keep your VZW service. For the rest of Americans, if you really don't like ATT and VZW's business practices, then put your money where your mouth is and switch carriers. VZW and ATT will continue to try to screw over customers for as long as those customers keep paying them.
I have 1 phone on T-Mobile now, it's my favorite carrier for customer service etc. As a Nextel user who switched from Sprint and a former Sprint data reseller, I won't go to them unless they are the only option.

RR Conductor
Ridin' the rails
Premium Member
join:2002-04-02
Redwood Valley, CA
ARRIS SB6183
Netgear R7000

1 edit

RR Conductor to tiger72

Premium Member

to tiger72
said by tiger72:

If you're in that last 10% of Americans who lives in rural America, keep your VZW service.
Or U.S. Cellular, our market (RSA 344, Mendocino & Lake Counties, NW CA) is served by Verizon, U.S. Cellular, AT&T, T-Mobile and Metro PCS. U.S. Cellular currently has the best coverage, though Verizon is close behind. Sprint has no native coverage and roams on U.S. Cellular, and Nextel phones are just dead noise makers

tiger72
SexaT duorP
Premium Member
join:2001-03-28
Saint Louis, MO

tiger72

Premium Member

Re: Will end up hurting them

said by RR Conductor:
said by tiger72:

If you're in that last 10% of Americans who lives in rural America, keep your VZW service.
Or U.S. Cellular, our market (RSA 344, Mendocino & Lake Counties, NW CA) is served by Verizon, U.S. Cellular, AT&T, T-Mobile and Metro PCS. U.S. Cellular currently has the best coverage, though Verizon is close behind. Sprint has no native coverage and roams on U.S. Cellular, and Nextel phones are just dead noise makers
Great point. US Cellular has good coverage in the areas it covers, and itself has some good policies (free incoming calls, for example). Plus they roam on VZW and Sprint where they don't have coverage - free on national plans.

I don't get this fixation on native coverage maps. Either you get service or you don't. I could care less whether TMO, ATT, Sprint, etc.. are roaming or not.

RR Conductor
Ridin' the rails
Premium Member
join:2002-04-02
Redwood Valley, CA
ARRIS SB6183
Netgear R7000

2 edits

RR Conductor

Premium Member

Re: Will end up hurting them

said by tiger72:
said by RR Conductor:
said by tiger72:

If you're in that last 10% of Americans who lives in rural America, keep your VZW service.
Or U.S. Cellular, our market (RSA 344, Mendocino & Lake Counties, NW CA) is served by Verizon, U.S. Cellular, AT&T, T-Mobile and Metro PCS. U.S. Cellular currently has the best coverage, though Verizon is close behind. Sprint has no native coverage and roams on U.S. Cellular, and Nextel phones are just dead noise makers
Great point. US Cellular has good coverage in the areas it covers, and itself has some good policies (free incoming calls, for example). Plus they roam on VZW and Sprint where they don't have coverage - free on national plans.

I don't get this fixation on native coverage maps. Either you get service or you don't. I could care less whether TMO, ATT, Sprint, etc.. are roaming or not.
Verizon doesn't care about how much you roam either, but AT&T, U.S. Cellular and Sprint do, and even T-Mobile does sometimes. USCC and VZ both roam in-market on each other here in bad signal areas, and now USCC is letting people roam on Verizon EVDO, something I hope Verizon will do on USCC EVDO soon.

tiger72
SexaT duorP
Premium Member
join:2001-03-28
Saint Louis, MO

1 edit

tiger72

Premium Member

Re: Will end up hurting them

said by RR Conductor:

Verizon doesn't care about how much you roam either, but AT&T, U.S. Cellular and Sprint do, and even T-Mobile does sometimes. USCC and VZ both roam in-market on each other here in bad signal areas, and now USCC is letting people roam on Verizon EVDO, something I hope Verizon will do on USCC EVDO soon.
How many Americans spend over 15 days each month out of coverage of Sprint, TMO, et al? And if you move outside of their coverage area such that you no longer have coverage or are forced to roam, you've got yourself an ETF-free way out of your contract.

Either way, for 90% of Americans the fact that Sprint, TMO, and ATT don't cover Howes, South Dakota but Verizon does is irrelevant. I'm never going to go there in my lifetime, and I'm going to go out on a limb and say that not a person i've ever met in my life has been there either. So why on earth would I pay more for coverage in places I'm never, ever going to come within 50 miles of?

RR Conductor
Ridin' the rails
Premium Member
join:2002-04-02
Redwood Valley, CA
ARRIS SB6183
Netgear R7000

RR Conductor

Premium Member

Re: Will end up hurting them

We're a very rural, mountainous and heavily forested area (Mendocino County, Northwestern California), so I guess for me having extensive coverage is pretty important. I travel allover NorCal (Mendocino, Lake, Humboldt, Del Norte, Trinity, Siskiyou, Shasta, Modoc, Lassen, Plumas, Tehama, Glenn, Butte, Sutter, Colusa, Yuba Counties) for work, and all of those areas are very rural, with some areas I go into being remote and isolated. I'd have to say in this part of California Verizon definitely wins.
NeoandGeo
join:2003-05-10
Harrison, TN

NeoandGeo to NOCMan

Member

to NOCMan
Would not have guessed that. I barely do anything on my Droid, and easily eat 3-4GB a month. With my Omnia I was barely doing 300MB.

Pirate515
Premium Member
join:2001-01-22
Brooklyn, NY

Pirate515

Premium Member

Re: Will end up hurting them

said by NeoandGeo:

Would not have guessed that. I barely do anything on my Droid, and easily eat 3-4GB a month. With my Omnia I was barely doing 300MB.
Interesting. Do you have push e-mail and/or any background processes running on it or use programs that stream video and/or audio? You could have some app that constantly downloads and/or uploads somewhere in the background, even though you do not see it running.

I have an iPhone and have push e-mail enabled for both work and personal accounts and stream a little video and audio. Although my work account gets pounded pretty heavily with e-mail, I still average around 400-500 MB per month.

Could be different with Android though.

Another thing is that these data-guzzling applications will kill your battery pretty quick as well. Unless you almost constantly have your phone plugged into AC power, you will probably run out of juice before you guzzle as much as 3-4 GB per month.
gunterm
join:2006-07-30
Topeka, KS

gunterm to NOCMan

Member

to NOCMan
Wow I didn't realize iPhone users did so little, if AT&T is whining with that small usage their network must be VERY under-built.

trparky
Premium Member
join:2000-05-24
Cleveland, OH

trparky to NOCMan

Premium Member

to NOCMan
Yeah, last month I only used 625 MBs of data on my data plan. Even my heaviest months I use less than 800 MBs. And that's with using streaming music apps like XMRadio. Most of the time I'm on wifi.
CopperFiber
join:2009-12-08

CopperFiber to BillRoland

Member

to BillRoland
I want to know when they are going to offer the one brand of their broadband product related to residential service instead of the two packages from the southeast to the non southeast areas, when will we get one AT&T SERVICE?

jchambers28
Premium Member
join:2007-05-12
Peculiar, MO

jchambers28

Premium Member

AT&T sucks

AT&T plain fu**ing sucks they like to screw over their customers any way they can I will never have the bastards.

ptrowski
Got Helix?
Premium Member
join:2005-03-14
Woodstock, CT

ptrowski

Premium Member

Re: AT&T sucks

said by jchambers28:

AT&T plain fu**ing sucks they like to screw over their customers any way they can I will never have the bastards.
I have yet to find a decent wireless company that is not in that same business.

mike1965
Geek4rent
join:2002-09-23
Marion, IL

1 recommendation

mike1965

Member

Economics 101

These CEO's live in some sort of a fantasy world, in a day of soaring unemployment, people trying to tighten monthly spending how ever they can. They think people have pockets with unlimited amount of cash.

they want to make more money maybe they should look at the top and cut the pay of idiots who are out of touch with reality.

Food for thought

ff1324
Everybody Goes Home
Premium Member
join:2002-08-24
On Four Day

4 recommendations

ff1324

Premium Member

Re: Economics 101

said by mike1965:

These CEO's live in some sort of a fantasy world, in a day of soaring unemployment, people trying to tighten monthly spending how ever they can. They think people have pockets with unlimited amount of cash.

they want to make more money maybe they should look at the top and cut the pay of idiots who are out of touch with reality.

Food for thought
...and yet you keep paying for the service. How did we get by 10 years ago? 20 years ago? Humans haven't changed. Our priorities haven't changed. Our comforts have changed.

30 years ago, there was a phone bill, a gas bill, and an electric bill. You had the newspaper delivered every day.

Today, dump the newspaper and add on home internet, cable tv/satellite tv, cell phone (add that data plan, too)...see how it adds up? And yet, we keep buying it.

The CEO's don't live in a fantasy world. They are businessmen in charge of making as much profit as they can for their investors. Do you have a 401k? Mutual fund? Retirement plan? Chances are, you are an investor in one of these companies and it benefits you the investor when you the consumer keep buying their product.

Don't blame the company, blame the sheep that keep wanting the product.
jus10
join:2009-08-04
Gainesville, VA

jus10

Member

Re: Economics 101

I still just have a phone bill, gas bill, and electric bill. My phone is a cell instead of a landline, and my gas/electric are the same. I have an internet bill as well though. I don' pay for TV but I have Netflix.

However I pay more now for my cellphone than my internet and given what I get out of both of them, that is absurd. If AT&T goes metered data at the rates they are currently charging, I'll hang up the iPhone and get a pre-paid el cheapo cell and just do everything over wifi.

don1p2
join:2004-06-11
Boston, MA

1 recommendation

don1p2

Member

Re: Economics 101

said by jus10:

If AT&T goes metered data at the rates they are currently charging, I'll hang up the iPhone and get a pre-paid el cheapo cell and just do everything over wifi.
And that's exactly what you should do. That is how a market -based economy works.

If you don't like the product being offered at the price-point, you switch to an alternative.

If enough people do, AT&T will get the message.

Until then, the old saying applies...."charge what the traffic will bear."
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

88615298 (banned)

Member

Re: Economics 101

said by don1p2:

said by jus10:

If AT&T goes metered data at the rates they are currently charging, I'll hang up the iPhone and get a pre-paid el cheapo cell and just do everything over wifi.
And that's exactly what you should do. That is how a market -based economy works.

If you don't like the product being offered at the price-point, you switch to an alternative.

If enough people do, AT&T will get the message.

Until then, the old saying applies...."charge what the traffic will bear."
You're assuming a free market actually exists. It doesn't. free market rules can't apply in on free market. And if you think there is a free market, you're high.
nasadude
join:2001-10-05
Rockville, MD

1 recommendation

nasadude

Member

Re: Economics 101

said by 88615298:

You're assuming a free market actually exists. It doesn't. free market rules can't apply in on free market. And if you think there is a free market, you're high.
oh, the market is free alright - free of regulation, free to charge you whatever the hell they want, free to do whatever they want (almost).

you mean a competitive market, which only marginally exists.

the fact remains if people keep paying when they jack prices up or change plans to achieve the same effect, the carriers will keep jacking up prices until they start losing significant amounts of customers.

until that happens or until the government promotes real competition, nothing will change the dynamic.
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

2 recommendations

88615298 (banned) to ff1324

Member

to ff1324
said by ff1324:

said by mike1965:

These CEO's live in some sort of a fantasy world, in a day of soaring unemployment, people trying to tighten monthly spending how ever they can. They think people have pockets with unlimited amount of cash.

they want to make more money maybe they should look at the top and cut the pay of idiots who are out of touch with reality.

Food for thought
...and yet you keep paying for the service. How did we get by 10 years ago? 20 years ago? Humans haven't changed. Our priorities haven't changed. Our comforts have changed.

30 years ago, there was a phone bill, a gas bill, and an electric bill. You had the newspaper delivered every day.

Today, dump the newspaper and add on home internet, cable tv/satellite tv, cell phone (add that data plan, too)...see how it adds up? And yet, we keep buying it.

The CEO's don't live in a fantasy world. They are businessmen in charge of making as much profit as they can for their investors. Do you have a 401k? Mutual fund? Retirement plan? Chances are, you are an investor in one of these companies and it benefits you the investor when you the consumer keep buying their product.

Don't blame the company, blame the sheep that keep wanting the product.
do you have a car? You sure do. Did your great great grandpartents? nope. So using your logic you should ditch your car since people use to get by without one. How's that plan sound?

THINK before speaking buddy, THINK.

ff1324
Everybody Goes Home
Premium Member
join:2002-08-24
On Four Day

ff1324

Premium Member

Re: Economics 101

said by 88615298:

do you have a car? You sure do. Did your great great grandpartents? nope. So using your logic you should ditch your car since people use to get by without one. How's that plan sound?

THINK before speaking buddy, THINK.
You don't NEED a car. You have two legs, with feet attached, made for getting your body from point A to point B. Additionally, there is public transit. You might tell the roughly six million residents of New York City who don't own cars about this.

THINK before using hyperbole make your dissention seem ridiculous, THINK.

ArrayList
DevOps
Premium Member
join:2005-03-19
Mullica Hill, NJ

ArrayList

Premium Member

Re: Economics 101

said by ff1324:

You don't NEED a car. You have two legs, with feet attached, made for getting your body from point A to point B. Additionally, there is public transit. You might tell the roughly six million residents of New York City who don't own cars about this.
seriously, public trasportation???

have you been to 95% of this country? there is not that much public trasportation in most of the US.

ff1324
Everybody Goes Home
Premium Member
join:2002-08-24
On Four Day

ff1324

Premium Member

Re: Economics 101

said by ArrayList:
said by ff1324:

You don't NEED a car. You have two legs, with feet attached, made for getting your body from point A to point B. Additionally, there is public transit. You might tell the roughly six million residents of New York City who don't own cars about this.
seriously, public trasportation???

have you been to 95% of this country? there is not that much public trasportation in most of the US.
There are the options of walking, riding a bike, or moving closer to employment.

Work is a necessity. There is housing close to jobs, but people CHOOSE to live elsewhere.

And you can always walk to work.

Listen. the point was that cell phones were not a necessity based on what was considered a typical utility debt load twenty years ago, but since then we've added the costs of cell phones and internet. Another poster said since my great great grandparents did not have a car that it must not be necessary. That argument loses strength primarily because of its basis only on hyperbole. That would be similar to my stating my ancient ancestors lived in stone huts so therefore I don't need a furnace in my house. Okay.

Nobody is forcing you to live far from work, own a cell phone, or sign on to teh intertubes.

ArrayList
DevOps
Premium Member
join:2005-03-19
Mullica Hill, NJ

ArrayList

Premium Member

Re: Economics 101

i bet that people who manage a pork factory really want to live right next door to it.

ff1324
Everybody Goes Home
Premium Member
join:2002-08-24
On Four Day

ff1324

Premium Member

Re: Economics 101

A pork factory? Yeah, those people would be called "farmers."

Just kidding around. You're right, who wants to live next to a slaughterhouse or pork processor. For that matter, who wants to live near a prison, lead smelter, or landfill? Yet people do...

ArrayList
DevOps
Premium Member
join:2005-03-19
Mullica Hill, NJ

2 edits

ArrayList

Premium Member

Re: Economics 101

people live next to places like that because they can't afford to live anywhere else.
decifal7
join:2007-03-10
Bon Aqua, TN

decifal7 to ff1324

Member

to ff1324
said by ff1324:

said by 88615298:

do you have a car? You sure do. Did your great great grandpartents? nope. So using your logic you should ditch your car since people use to get by without one. How's that plan sound?

THINK before speaking buddy, THINK.
You don't NEED a car. You have two legs, with feet attached, made for getting your body from point A to point B. Additionally, there is public transit. You might tell the roughly six million residents of New York City who don't own cars about this.

THINK before using hyperbole make your dissention seem ridiculous, THINK.
The nearest public transit for me is MUCH further than the very places I need to go to.. This arguement is null

thender
Screen tycoon
Premium Member
join:2009-01-01
Brooklyn, NY

1 edit

1 recommendation

thender to 88615298

Premium Member

to 88615298
said by 88615298:
said by ff1324:
said by mike1965:

These CEO's live in some sort of a fantasy world, in a day of soaring unemployment, people trying to tighten monthly spending how ever they can. They think people have pockets with unlimited amount of cash.

they want to make more money maybe they should look at the top and cut the pay of idiots who are out of touch with reality.

Food for thought
...and yet you keep paying for the service. How did we get by 10 years ago? 20 years ago? Humans haven't changed. Our priorities haven't changed. Our comforts have changed.

30 years ago, there was a phone bill, a gas bill, and an electric bill. You had the newspaper delivered every day.

Today, dump the newspaper and add on home internet, cable tv/satellite tv, cell phone (add that data plan, too)...see how it adds up? And yet, we keep buying it.

The CEO's don't live in a fantasy world. They are businessmen in charge of making as much profit as they can for their investors. Do you have a 401k? Mutual fund? Retirement plan? Chances are, you are an investor in one of these companies and it benefits you the investor when you the consumer keep buying their product.

Don't blame the company, blame the sheep that keep wanting the product.
do you have a car? You sure do. Did your great great grandpartents? nope. So using your logic you should ditch your car since people use to get by without one. How's that plan sound?

THINK before speaking buddy, THINK.
ff made a good point - that the CEOs are not living in a fantasy world. They are providing services people are willing to pay for. If a large amount of the country is fine giving their 14 year old kid a $120/mo cellphone, they're not in a fantasyland for providing this.

Using the word buddy and think in capital letters only reasserts what a douche you are.

SimbaSeven
I Void Warranties
join:2003-03-24
Billings, MT
·StarLink

SimbaSeven

Member

Getting screwed.. Worse than before!

Well, if at&t has their way, I'll be getting screwed more often and worse once at&t takes over Alltel here.

Looks like I'll be enjoying my unlimited while it lasts.. Unless I get "grandfathered" in without having to buy a new handset (I love my Touch Pro). Of course, at&t will find a way to screw the "grandfathered in" people even worse (mostly speeds).

If the sh*t really hits the fan, I'll just get a TracFone with a year of service or look into Cellular One here.

AnonPerson
join:2000-08-26
Lexington, KY

AnonPerson

Member

Bad idea

When they increased the service fee from the original Iphone to the 3G Iphone, thats when I got rid of my Iphone and changed providers. They took away text messaging yet found it necessary to charge $10 more. I won't pay more for less. Good thing there's several other wireless providers out there to choose from!

thxultra
@mchsi.com

thxultra

Anon

I will switch services right away if they do

Honestly a move like this will only make me switch to another provider. While I'm not a heavy mobile internet user (I se less then a gig a month on my iphone) I will ditch AT&T the day they make this move. If anything they should be lowering there mobile internet pricing as $30 a month + $20 for txt is just out of control.

Z80A
Premium Member
join:2009-11-23

Z80A

Premium Member

Their plans are always the same

Consumption based billing just means the same current high data plan price with the addition of overage fees.

mod_wastrel
anonome
join:2008-03-28

mod_wastrel

Member

Because...

"variable" sounds so much better than "metered"... so much more "customer friendly".

axiomatic
join:2006-08-23
Tomball, TX

axiomatic

Member

Agreed

The honeymoon is over. The iPhone is officially becoming not worth it anymore. Apple is insane to stick with AT&T exclusivity.

I plan to leave AT&T at the end of my contract. I refuse to let them get an ETF though.

•••••

Time
Premium Member
join:2003-07-05
Irvine, CA

Time

Premium Member

Depends...

I use about 1 GB of data in a month on my iPhone (mostly streaming radio) - if my price goes down with this "variable billing", I'll stay. But if I have to pay more - sorry AT&T, the iPhone isn't worth it at that point. $49.99 + $30 + $20 is just too much for a single line.

I said I'd never go back to Sprint, but $70 per month is looking pretty good if a price increase comes through.

n2jtx
join:2001-01-13
Glen Head, NY

n2jtx

Member

Lucky So Far

So far, T-Mobile has not deigned to follow the leaders. I have a 500 voice minute plan and that is it. No data, no SMS. If they decide at some point I have to have that on my old Motorola V360, I will either be shopping for a new carrier OR dropping wireless altogether. I have no need to pay for service I do not need or want.

Gbcue
Premium Member
join:2001-09-30
Santa Rosa, CA

Gbcue

Premium Member

Re: Lucky So Far

said by n2jtx:

So far, T-Mobile has not deigned to follow the leaders. I have a 500 voice minute plan and that is it. No data, no SMS. If they decide at some point I have to have that on my old Motorola V360, I will either be shopping for a new carrier OR dropping wireless altogether. I have no need to pay for service I do not need or want.
Doesn't look like T-Mobile is going to change soon with how their Even More and Even More Plus plans are set up.

One plan with voice, then you can add text, and/or data.

ptrowski
Got Helix?
Premium Member
join:2005-03-14
Woodstock, CT

ptrowski

Premium Member

Re: Lucky So Far

said by Gbcue:
said by n2jtx:

So far, T-Mobile has not deigned to follow the leaders. I have a 500 voice minute plan and that is it. No data, no SMS. If they decide at some point I have to have that on my old Motorola V360, I will either be shopping for a new carrier OR dropping wireless altogether. I have no need to pay for service I do not need or want.
Doesn't look like T-Mobile is going to change soon with how their Even More and Even More Plus plans are set up.

One plan with voice, then you can add text, and/or data.
Nice job jinxing it. I hope to be proven wrong, but it is only a matter of time.
33358088 (banned)
join:2008-09-23

33358088 (banned)

Member

@time

you pay WHAT for 1GB of data?
boy i think they should raise prices up until the stupidity ends
no offense guy but if you have some money to waste pm me ill give you a post office box and you can tunnel me all you wish

••••

del ftl
@algx.net

del ftl

Anon

churn

AT&T has the lowest churn in the industry and will continue to have such while they have iphone exclusivity.

Karl's article was funny in that he says "But suddenly, here you are paying more than $100 a month for voice, data and SMS plan"

Welcome to the iphone. Land of the average 110 dollars a month 2 year phone lease plan. ATT ALREADY charges the average iphone user over 100 dollars a month. The lowest you can get an iphone for ends up around 90 dollars after all the taxes and fees.

If this goes through expect the average iphone bill to increase around 15 dollars a month. And guess what ATT with the lowest churn will likely not bat an eye since no one wants to give up their iphone (even though there are better phones out there now).

Everyone here in this thread who uses att or vzw is simply aiding in this type of crappy business behavior.
ggmorton
join:2002-07-24
Cookeville, TN

ggmorton

Member

Re: churn

said by del ftl :

The lowest you can get an iphone for ends up around 90 dollars after all the taxes and fees.
Not true. I have a non JB iphone 3GS with no included minutes, but nationwide free nights and weekends. No SMS plan, and the unlimited data plan. Daytime minutes are 8 cents each.

The voice plan is $7.99. The Data plan is ~$22. With all the fees, and small minutes I use, I pay between $35 and $40 a month.

Obviously this is through the discount my company provides, but it is no where near $90 a month.
Rick5
Premium Member
join:2001-02-06

Rick5

Premium Member

Far be it for me to be any kind of AT&T defender..

(lol)...but hey folks...did you read this line?

"That's largely because as carriers begin to open their networks to push IM clients and mobile VoIP, they'll be losing a lot of money on voice and SMS."

Sound like the massacre they've experienced with their landline business the last few years as voip and the cable providers have moved in?

Same thing is going to happen with wireless voice.

And so..who can blame them? If I was running a telco i'd be doing the same thing. What isn't mentioned in the article is the benefit that consumers will see in what will amount to lower voice costs as voip providers become more prevalent on these carriers networks. You know...kinda like the same thing that people see with voip services instead of landlines today.

Personally, I really don't think the increases will be all that much anyway. There is too much competition now out there with these providers. Don't like AT&T? Go to verizon..or tmobile..or sprint..or..whomever. That alone is going to curtail any monumental changes in data pricing from any one carriers desire to change the way these services are priced.

And..people have another option. Simply don't subscribe to a service. I myself have never felt a burning need to even keep a cell phone with me at all times and most times it's out in my vehicle for emergency purposes. When I want data and to chat and use the internet..that's what my home connection is for.
I really get nothing out of trying to type on some microscopic keypad in order to keep in touch with someone every minute of the day. I text on rare occassions..if it's important. I make a cell call a few times a day..when it's important. Mobile communications isn't a big part of my life. And..if it was..then I'd expect to have to pay for it. And a dollar or two a day wouldn't be something I would view as being "too much money".

I dunno..maybe i'm getting a bit too old school or something but all i can think of when I see these rants about a dollar a day pricing is back when I used to pay 300.00 a month for dial up.
Now that was expensive. 30.00 a month or 50.00 a month for a service isn't expensive and if it were me..I'd be more concerned that I had good service than in how to save 10.00 a month. It should be a fair relationship between the companies that serve us as consumers..and the companies health themselves.
You simply can't expect that a company is going to lose all kinds of money on one thing..and not have to make it up on something else. And so..if this is what they have to do to survive..then so be it. People have a choice. And one of those choices is to use someone else. And another is to not use anyone or to alter the way they use these devices.

I also can't help but to find it rather interesting that people will shell out these 70 and 80.00 a month payments simply for a mobile connection...but then scream to high heaven about a home PHONE..INTERNET..and CABLE package being 99 ~159.00 a month.

Now to me..THAT is where the value is. And the real convenience and savings. Not in some 2x4 inch device that one can barely see the keys on.

Thanks..but I'll just keep my phone for what I see as the best use for it..for limited communication for the times I really need it...and avoid this whole controversy altogether.

It's just not worth it to me to do otherwise.
brianiscool
join:2000-08-16
Tampa, FL

brianiscool

Member

well

If you look at the numbers. AT&T is still cheaper compared to Verzion. Although, I suspect a huge shift in the mobile market for unlimited everything. Once the pre-paid companies get 4G then we will see prices drop drastically.
bladec594
join:2007-09-24
Alpharetta, GA

bladec594

Member

What would you do?

Karl said:

"It's absolutely essential to carrier execs and investors eager to compensate for lost voice and SMS revenues. Anybody claiming otherwise is either selling you something or not reading the fine print."

So, what you do in their shoes?? NOT pursue new sources of revenue, new lines of business, new growth?? Finding a way to align higher consumption with higher price is pretty much inevitable in an environment built upon such a fixed amount of core resource, in this case, spectrum.

Karl Bode
News Guy
join:2000-03-02

2 recommendations

Karl Bode

News Guy

Re: What would you do?

I'm fine with people trying to make money when ethical. It's when people try to pass off making money as some kind of altruism that I get kind of grumpy. Like carriers arguing that a shift to high overages and low caps is some kind of altruism...
openbox9
Premium Member
join:2004-01-26
71144

openbox9

Premium Member

Huh?

said by Karl Bode:

Meanwhile, you've got AT&T and Verizon also now requiring that everybody have an SMS and data plan on their phone
When did this happen?
Skippy25
join:2000-09-13
Hazelwood, MO

Skippy25

Member

How about 1 account then?

If they are going to continue down this path why don't they have a way to setup 1 account that we can use on any number of devices?

We can then attach any number of phones, iPads, or whatever future tech brings device to this account and get to pay for that pool of data used for ALL those devices associated with that account.

Then we dont have to have 8 different subscriptions and 8 different contracts with 8 different ETF's.
flbas1
join:2010-02-03
Fort Lauderdale, FL

flbas1

Member

Re: How about 1 account then?

just move your SIM chip from device to device
beaups
join:2003-08-11
Hilliard, OH

beaups

Member

How do you know?

Karl,

How do you know prices are increasing for heavy users? How do you know that they aren't looking to introduce more enticing plans for their not-so-heavy users? Maybe they are looking to add a truly "unlimited" tier?

To me, it seems like a lot of speculation again on your part.

Let's wait till they announce something...and THEN if it turns out to be what you speculate, we can start complaining.

tiger72
SexaT duorP
Premium Member
join:2001-03-28
Saint Louis, MO

tiger72

Premium Member

Re: How do you know?

said by beaups:

Karl,

How do you know prices are increasing for heavy users? How do you know that they aren't looking to introduce more enticing plans for their not-so-heavy users? Maybe they are looking to add a truly "unlimited" tier?

To me, it seems like a lot of speculation again on your part.

Let's wait till they announce something...and THEN if it turns out to be what you speculate, we can start complaining.
It may be speculation, but it's based upon the evidence of what ATT and VZW has been doing over the past couple years. Verizon's 25MB data plan is a perfect example. These days, there's not much that most users can do on less than 25MB. Carrier pricing on text messaging is another example: It's a Zero-Cost feature that they charge you $20/mo for.

The carriers are quite adept at making people pay exorbitant rates for features that cost them next to nothing to provide.
wierdo
join:2001-02-16
Miami, FL

wierdo

Member

Re: How do you know?

said by tiger72:

Carrier pricing on text messaging is another example: It's a Zero-Cost feature that they charge you $20/mo for.
While $0.25 a message is far in excess of cost, SMS is absolutely not a zero cost feature. SMS uses up valuable control channel resources that can otherwise be put to use setting up data sessions and telephone calls. at&t's current issues in many markets are apparently largely caused by control channel congestion.

From my perspective, it seems like they ought to be charging more to reduce usage to a level that can be supported by the network if they're going to continue to delay in adding more control channels or splitting cells.

Ironically, maintaining an IM or streaming radio session all month is probably easier on the network than those who send five or ten thousand SMS a month. The data channels have a lot more bandwidth available.

ArrayList
DevOps
Premium Member
join:2005-03-19
Mullica Hill, NJ

ArrayList

Premium Member

why

do i want to go on a rampage whenever i see or hear or think of steve jobs?!
clickie8
join:2005-05-22
Monroe, MI

clickie8

Member

Re: why


Because you lack logical rational thought?
viperlmw
Premium Member
join:2005-01-25

1 recommendation

viperlmw to ArrayList

Premium Member

to ArrayList
said by ArrayList:

do i want to go on a rampage whenever i see or hear or think of steve jobs?!
Because you have a clue?
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