Why The Wireless Industry Is Moving To Flat-Rate Pricing
from the lower-transaction-costs dept
One of the recurring trends in high-tech markets is that as information goods get cheaper, they're increasingly sold as all-you-can-eat bundles rather than as individual units. This has been true of land-line telephone service for decades. In the late 1990s, we saw the same transition occur in Internet access. In this decade, we've seen the explosive growth of Netflix, which is an all-you-can-eat plan for video. Now it appears that cell phone companies are inching in that direction too, as Mike discussed last week. For $99/month, Verizon Wireless, AT&T, and T-Mobile will let you talk on your cell phone as much as you want. Sprint is apparently considering adopting a similar plan. This isn't actually all that new.There are two fundamental economic forces at work here. First, metering imposes costs, both on consumers and on carriers. For carriers, there are the obvious expenses of keeping track of billing information, as well as the attendant support costs when an angry customer calls to complain about unexpected charges. For the customer, metering imposes the mental overhead of having to keep track of whether it's currently "peak" or "off peak" time, how many minutes are in his plan, whether he's currently "roaming," etc. A lot of customers are happy to pay a little bit extra for the peace of mind of knowing exactly how much they're going to pay each month without having to keep track of their calling activity. Second, the wireless market, like the phone, Internet, and DVD markets, is capital-intensive. Unless the network is already fully loaded, the marginal user costs wireless carriers close to nothing. As a result, metered pricing often causes under-utilization of the network because minutes are priced far above their marginal cost. Switching to a flat-rate plan can be economically efficient because it encourages greater utilization of the network without undermining the carriers' ability to recover their fixed costs. That has always been the rationale behind the free night and weekend minutes offered by a lot of cell phone companies over the last few years. They're just expanding it so it applies 24/7.
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Filed Under: flat-rate, wireless
Companies: at&t, sprint, t-mobile, verizon wireless
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Well..
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Re: Well..
I think that sprint is going to release a slightly less expensive deal that has unlimited voice/data/texting here in a little while. They've been testing the unlimited plans in a couple of cities for several months now they are just being slow to release it wide because they wanted to see what the others would do so they could undercut it.
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I'm sorry, but I've *never* heard of Metro PCS. Where do you live? I've never seen an ad for them on TV, in the paper, or online.
They don't exist in the Pacific Northwest for sure, and I'm not certain about parts of California. What about the mid west?
Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile I *have* heard of. They have pieces of network in every state for the most part.
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A concern for T-Mobile is that they still haven't launched 3G, when other companies are now discussing 4G.
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After all, who do you think PAYS for all those ads so you do know who they are?
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T-Mobile Yea - Verizon Will Try To Suck You Dry
What I've noticed is that Verizon is scratching and grasping at every last dime. Through my T-Mobile, I can access Google Maps for free, turning my almost 3 year old PDA into a GPS-enabled device. Verizon wants an extra $5 a month if I sign up for GPS mapping services through them.They also charge per megabyte if you want to use the internet on your cell phone.
Verizon also attempts to charge a sucker's fee for all kinds of optional services. I wouldn't mind paying for a single ringtone, but instead of letting me cough up the .99 cents for the stupid thing, they want to charge me the .99 cent fee PLUS a monthly subscription fee, PLUS an annual fee to renew the ringtone after 12 months.
Now, I haven't been able to discern yet how to hack the phone in order to upload my own ringtone, but I'm still trying. It's the principle of the thing, and once this Verizon contract is up I won't renew it, because I find this nickel and diming crap to be very distasteful. If I wasn't an experienced techie, I can also see where it would be very easy to accidentally sign up for some extra service on your Verizon cell phone.
T-Mobile has none of these little sucker tricks. Their pricing structure is clear with no bullshit.
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Or perhaps.....
Sorry for the cached version, msnbc isn't hosting it anymore;
http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:XUkQqHRdPqcJ:www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23123040/+U.S.+wi reless+market+one+of+most+competitive+worldwide&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&client= firefox-a
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Metro Piece of SH*T! aka Metro PCS
They do not service all of the US. They relay on Sprint's older technology to run their service.
So obviously it does not run on a GSM Network.
Asides from getting hang up calls (which they have gotten better at), you are very limited to their network range.
Mind you, they have a $40 all you can talk; however, their services are limited to (local calls) If you want text or long distance you have to pay extra.
I remember when AT&T before cingular had a $99 all you can talk mobile plan. It will be good for certain people who spend all day on the phone.
As far as T-Mobile, they usually have the best plans and the cheapests. I have a 3 line fam plan and I pay $10 for unlimited text and video text on all 3, not each.
BTW here is a link of what Amazon is selling
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_6375702_1?ie=UTF8&docId=1000200921&pf_r d_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-4&pf_rd_r=09DA3ZMMA7JG1ZQRP8YA&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p= 366619501&pf_rd_i=301185
It compares all of the 3 major networks plan. T-Mobile throws in Messaging for free :-)
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Re: Metro Piece of SH*T! aka Metro PCS
For example, if you buy a car, you buy it to fill a need of transportation.
If you buy a phone, your need is communication.
To bring technology in as a major purchasing factor during the sales process is like buying a car based solely on the fact of if it runs on Unleaded or Diesel. Granted, each type of technology has pluses and minuses, step back and ask, does it really matter to 90% of the population?
To rephrase: at the end of the day, who really cares if your phone runs on GSM/CDMA or your car runs on Unleaded or Diesel.
If you can't make it to your appointments, the car is useless.
If you can't communicate, your phone is useless.
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Ironic how a "Free" topic and this topic conflict.
No matter. Hey, with this $99/mo, do customers get anything for free (besides the peace of mind of tracking minutes)?
Oh, wait! That's the next step, isn't it? Get free unlimited texting with every $99 plan purchase! Not enough? How about 5 free ringtones? Hell, how about free unlimited wallpaper, music, and ringtones.
It's coming, but not until those suckers who pay $99/mo stock up the revenue for Verizon (et al) to do this.
You said it yourself, there's less cost for them to go flat rate but now that the basic rate has been raised, those "free" elements are inclusive and thus, zero cost to the customer. They're still paying for them with the base fee.
Welcome to the "free" world.
Oh, and read Anne's post. See how long businesses stay around when they truly do try to offer free.
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$45/mo unlimited, effectively
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Re #16 Twinrova
Notice the name up there on the left side of the page?
It says "Timothy Lee" as in NOT Mike Mesnik.
Anyways, the articles do not conflict at all.
Once you have the plan for all you can eat for phone for 99$, if that includes data, then yes, you should be able to download ringtones, wallpapers, etc for free.
It just makes sense since data in already included.
But that is only if data IS included in the all you can eat for 99$/month. If its not, well, then it doesn't apply.
So no, the economics of free, and this article, are in no way conflicting.
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Not as "flat" as it sounds
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Still Way too High
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back in the day, i had this bank account
A few decades ago, I had an account at a bank that paid the highest interest rates of any in the area. It seemed great on the face of it, but then we discovered how hard it was to balance our checkbook against the statement. Not only were there additional little deposits of interest into our accounts, but there were little withdrawals of fees for everything: new checks, register tablets, teller services, and every ATM transaction (withdrawals, balance inquiry, etc.) was another dime or quarter gone. This was before the WWW, or else I would have been surprised that they didn't charge a fee for the paper statement.
The time we had to spend to add and subtract all these numbers far exceeded the value of the higher interest they were paying us, and we didn't even get to keep that money, considering all the debits they charged in fees. We switched to the lower-interest, free-ATM bank.
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Unlimited for $99
As far as mocking the unlimited sms services, well at least it's a savings of $15-20. From the reg. saving you'll get with the flat fee.
For the person who doesn't have a house phone and spends over $100 in their plan this will benefit them greatly.
For the person who stay within the home area, well obviously Metro PCS is better for you. But I think now-a-days most people travel outside of their home region.
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Data Services are killing Cell Carriers
The White Space spectrum really is a concern for these Carriers. Especially if the FCC allows Unlicensed access to the spectrum, which the FCC will focus on after the 700Mhz Auction is over.I predict that AT&T and VW will go out of their way to buy as much of the main market spectrum in the 700Mhz auction, as well as most of the Lower Band A Block to sideline these prospective WISP and allow them to deploy upgrades to their Narrowband Services.
Unlimited VOice is a joke-amazing that all the big Carriers responded within days of each other. It will be what they will be able to deliver in the Data world using 3G technology that will kill them. They have until end of 2009 to make changes in this Data Space.
Jacomo
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