Back in 04 when I first start observing trends in the wireless industry, I predicted to see all-you-can-eat wireless plans, and eventually model the current landline model. Also I expected to see one common technology emerge that allowed phones to be used cross carrier, thus eventually pushing out carriers from subsidizing phones and users buy them directly from the manufacture. Verizon has announced they are foregoing all tiered plans (except one) for one set price, (which includes unlimited minutes and text) Add up to 10 devices: $40 for a smart phone $30 for a feature phone $20 for a USB stick (aircard) $10 for a tablet Then a data package is required: $50/1gb $60/2gb $70/4gb $80/6gb $90/8gb $100/10gb So if you had 3 smart phones, air card and tablet, it would run you $150 + data plan for unlimited minutes and texts. I found this interesting as this appears to be the future of the wireless industrys billing.
http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/splash/shareEverythingCalculator.jsp there's a calculator. i don't see how it says anyone money other than maybe simplifying billing? i guess sharing helps in situations where one person uses only little of their data plan while other uses all of theirs..so this would come in handy because it's one big pool of data.
I'm seriously considering turning off the data plan on my iphone and just hopping onto wifi networks when needed. Too expensive, lousy service.
Charging by limited data plans has zero future. In case nobody remembers, that is how the INTERNET started on its billing, they charged you per minute of usage, like it was long-distance or something. That was the way everyone did it, Prodigy, AOL, Compuserve, PeoplePC, Yahoo, all of those companies tried to charge yo for every little thing you did. Then economic darwinism happened and nobody pays for their home internet like that any more. Yes, some companies are trying to re-institute that model, but it will never work, especially as long as there are providers which do not, people will just switch. The more these wireless companies come along and try to force people into over-paying for their internet usage by charging them tiers, more and more people will switch to companies like Sprint.
it's because verizon and att are practically the same company. what one does..the other does also. sprint is the only one with anything remotely different.
Yeah, this isn't going to last -- it'll start getting cheaper towards the end of 4G as it transitions to the next level. The tech just has to catch up.
Maybe some kind of integration by acquistion, but I don't think manufacturers want any part of the cell phone service function: compared to designing and manufacturing products it seems like they would just view it as expensive, unpleasant and mundane. I don't think you can sell phones without retail locations and you can't do retail without service, as people will not go to multiple physical locations and phone/online service platforms and third party providers (like Asurion) are really awful (like calling H&R Block in April). The structures are presumably vastly different but this is probably the same reason you'll never see HBO or ESPN directly wiring up customers, or non-Mac PC stores.
The wireless price structure for data plans is prohibitively expensive....on purpose. I'm still skating on a grandfathered unlimited plan with Verizon and use just about 5 GB/month. I just do not get the point of 4G and mobile streaming apps if the carriers can't handle the load and need to overcharge to force the masses to be exclusively wifi on their 4G handset. They keep going down this road and I'll go back to a dumbphone and just use a wifi tablet.
I rather them charge me $50 for unlimited data and text and charge me $10 per 60 minutes of talk time
Here's more info for people who want to keep their unlimited. http://www.droid-life.com/2012/06/12/reminder-you-do-not-have-to-switch-to-verizons-new-share-everything-data-plans/ Now I will REALLY have to consider upgrading my phone now to keep my unlimited and get a subsidized phone. I'd rather wait to see what comes out later this year but the Galaxy S3 is certainly not a bad option to be 'forced' into.
How's Sprint's coverage these days? Are they still spotty? Haven't looked at Sprint in about a decade, so I may be a bit behind on the times...
I've yet to find anywhere I can't get a signal with Sprint. Even out in the backwoods north of Livingston at my inlaws place. I get good signal inside the bowling center in Pasadena when AT&T users have to go outside for signal. Had to call customer support today to help activate my daughter's new phone, they were quick, efficient, friendly and the call center was in the US so I could understand the rep easily. I dont normally rave about a company doing what I pay them to do, but the bad reputation Sprint has online is unfounded in my experience, and we have been with them for over 10 years.
Been waiting on this since last year when Verizon said it was coming. AT&T will definitely copy it. I wanted Verizon to announce details before deciding whether to re-commit with T-Mobile. It's too expensive for my family. Looks like we'll re-up another 2 years with T-Mobile and re-examine in 2014. I was willing to give Verizon a chance.
