Verizon Tiered Data Pricing Is a Mistake: 10 Reasons Why
...
By eliminating unlimited data for its mobile customers, Verizon is putting itself in a difficult position. The fact is, unlimited data isn’t good for anyone, including customers, smartphone makers, or carriers. Prior to its decision, Verizon held the high ground on data plans. Now, the company is down at the bottom of the heap with AT&T.
Verizon committed a major blunder by bringing tiered data to its business, and over time, it will realize why.
Read on to find out why tiered data pricing is bad for all stakeholders and could eventually come back to haunt Verizon Wireless:
1. More smartphones mean more data use
If there is anything that can be guaranteed in the coming years i
(continues)
Yeah. Those two middling companies are really suffering with their puny market share.
"1. More smartphones mean more data use"
Hmmmm...so now when a person on a 2GB plan or a 5GB plan exceeds their allotted data allowance Verizon stands to actually make a few dollars out of the deal.
"2. It could have been an advantage for Verizon"
Instead they and AT&T continue to look like twins separated at birth. No great loss for them.
"3. Why isn’t Verizon thinking about AT&T’s merger?"
This one was just filler material, wasn't it.
"4. It’s expensive"
Yes it is. Those *Bleep*ards are licking their lips with eager anticipation of all the mo...
(continues)
joey301 said:
I agree with everything you said. We can only hope that some real ISP comes along to challenge Verizon, or the government decides to regulate ISP prices.
You think $10 a GB is an extravagant charge? It's not. Delivering data service over a cellular network costs between 25x and 75x as much as transferring the exact same amount of data over a DSL or cable modem.
The only way to keep the cellular networks from being over run in the short term is WiFi offloading and femtocells. Tiered data drives usage of the cheaper short-range wireless services, which leaves more cellular capacity available for the people riding in the busses and trains that can't reasonably use WiFi.
I abso...
(continues)
Does this open up the door to shared data? In addition to promising tiered data, there have been mentions out there of shared data on accounts.
If I can buy up $30 for 2GB to share across both of my smartphones, my bill effectively drops 50% for data services. That'd make me a pretty happy camper.
Hopefully they won't decide to make the "shared" plans different rates and tiers, or offer even more options.
Azeron said:
You are an eternal optimist. Why would Verizon give you a chance to save money when you are perfectly content to pay for two data plans now?
Yep...
Here's hoping T-mobile doesn't get gobbled up by AT&T so they can continue to be a competitive force driving down the cost of service. Economics is the only way this is going to improve now.
Free market indeed...
Understand this: At the same time that Sprint touts its unlimited data plan, there will be accountants in Hesse's ears showing him the revenues they could have made were their data plans tiered rather than unlimited. How long will Sprint hold out?
pickles said:
supposedly, they had to give most of the revenue from the $10 add-on to clearwire
If that's true OUCH!
Competing is expensive. Ever notice cable companies don't compete against one another? Instead they divide up cities and charge consumers whatever they wish. This is what mobsters do. This is what gangs should do if they had any sense. Why expend resources tearing one another down when one can agree to share territory and operate side by side? This is what Verizon and AT&T are doing and what they SHOULD be doing. They have no natural enemies. They can each sit there making billions and there is nothing anyone can do about it. The Feds won't stop them as long as these two keep contributing dollars to members of each political party.
Althe rest of the article is just as contradictory.