Prepaid is based on days, not "months"... So you state that it's 30 days, not a month, then are you equally as upset in February? and what about months like May and July? If you go prepaid, it's by the day, if you're post paid it's by the month.

Obviously many people do think it's worth the price. If you don't think so, don't buy it. That's how capitalism works. To move further and assert that not only does their price not meet YOUR expectations, but it is TOO HIGH FOR EVERYBODY, is pretty arrogant. Especially when you can't back it up.

Really? You think gold prices are "clear cut"? Take a look at the swings in the market for gold. Now oil, there actually is a cartel that to some extent fixes prices. But even they are eventually required to listen to supply and demand.

The only actual data you provided in that response was:

Their profit margin is consistently positive.

I'm not getting through to you and I can accept that. Just as I am sure that you feel you are not getting through to me.

Their profits/profit margin should be what it is. They are getting away with charging what they charge and people are paying it. Good for them. Doesn't change the fact that their prices isn't the worth of the product.

It's not as clear cut as something traded like gold. Where you can get the going rate for the item. It's too bad too, because if they did have something like that, it's be clear they were charging more than the worth.

Although, looking at the price of a barrel of oil, you can concede that these prices too can be "fixed".

Yet they profited 2.4 billion last quarter.

Yet they profited 2.4 billion last quarter.

"How much does it cost for AT&T to deliver 1GB of data?" Don't say anything before you answer this first.

We're in a loop because you can't understand a simple question. Is AT&T overcharging for their service or not?

Personally I don't care that much, it's not a burning question for me. Because I'm not on some crusade to prove that AT&T's prices (or Verizon's for that matter... they are on the same price point) is "unfair". You are. I'm just shooting down your logic because it's easy.

A couple of study notes:

a) Trying to look at the cost of some undersea cable or something then extrapolate does not take into account anything close to the actual total cost of delivering a service. That article you linked to is wildly non-applicable to the question.

b) I know I've said this like 50 times but you keep ignoring it. The marginal cost of providing the next increment of a service is nowhere close to the total cost of providing a service.

c) You also have to consider different kinds of costs: the ongoing cost of operating the service, the initial investment cost which is capitalized and depreciated, and incremental investments to improve the service. There's also all kinds of costs not associated directly with operating the service.

d) Price does not derive directly from cost. That's only one factor. There's pricing strategy involved. See the link I posted a while ago which you called "meaningless".

The country is supposed to have laws against monopolies, collusion, and price gouging.

If maybe you or someone else could show anywhere on the internet where a fair estimate of total cost of delivering wireless data over 3G or 4G (including upkeep, infrastructure, etc)... you can help prove that they aren't grossly overcharging for the service.

You haven't, I feel, because you can't. Until you do, it's clear that providers are overcharging for their services. People are paying it, so go for them. And we'll even take your hard-on for $10 per GB ... which is also overpriced.

You're probably going to go into some silly nonsense wiki-link,

or some other circular reasoning diatribe,

so if you're tempted to do that, just answer the following question:

"How much does it cost for AT&T to deliver 1GB of data?" Don't say anything before you answer this first.

Here's a link:
»blogs.howstuffworks.com/ ··· cenario/

States the price of bandwidth.

Regardless of anything, you still haven't presented any argument or 'metric' that proves that $20 for 300MB is anywhere a reasonable deal. Also, when we're talking about their $20 per 300MB plan, that's the price point, not $10 per GB.

So lets get simple. Answer this ONE QUESTION.

How is $20 for 300MB a fair price??? <--- this guy, just answer this.

...It's obvious based on your assertion that you have no idea what it takes to create, implement, and maintain a carrier class wireless network.

can you explain how the service is now priced more than it is worth?

Highest estimates of cost of transferring a GB of data puts it at less than 10¢ ... the 2.4 cents is an approximation based on that. The transfer of data is extremely cheap. Sure setting up the infrastructure costs money, but AT&T has recouped that money many times over. Yet they don't update the infrastructure and blame "data hogs" for congestion.

About the 3.4 billion, that was the income for only ONE QUARTER, my mistake. So they are making even more money.

And yes, I took the factor instead of the percent, I did base it on 2.4¢ not 3¢ though. So it would be an 83,333% markup.

Go prepaid on t-mobile. No data plan required.

Total price fixing. We need to do something about this!