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Verizon may be alone in following AT&T rate change
Sinead Carew
NEW YORK
Fri Jun 4, 2010 8:11pm EDT
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Customers line up outside of a Verizon Wireless store to purchase the new Blackberry Storm phone in New York, November 21, 2008.
Credit: Reuters/Brendan McDermid
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Verizon Wireless could be prepared to follow AT&T Inc's (T.N) lead and change how it charges wireless subscribers to download data -- but analysts say other carriers may be better served by standing their ground in the latest pricing upheaval.
Technology | Media
AT&T's move on Wednesday to halve mobile data fees for most customers -- but eliminate its unlimited data plan and make heavy users pay more -- created a rash of speculation about what rivals would do. None have revealed their plans.
Analysts are betting that U.S. market leader Verizon Wireless, owned by Verizon Communications (VZ.N) and Vodafone Group Plc (VOD.L), will react by cutting its prices at the low end. It will also pull its unlimited service to help it manage network capacity.
But AT&T's next-biggest rivals -- Sprint Nextel (S.N) and T-Mobile USA, a unit of Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE) -- are more likely to maintain their unlimited plans, allowing customers to surf the Web as much as they want for a fixed price.
Gartner analyst Phillip Redman said that Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile, because they have been losing subscribers, have more spare network capacity and can therefore lure away any customers that want to stick with unlimited plans. Both operators, however, may still introduce new low-end plans to match AT&T's price cut.
"T-Mobile USA and Sprint are in the same boat. I don't see them changing their top end plans," Redman said. "But they will need to on the low end."
Verizon Wireless, by contrast, has greater incentive to pull back on its unlimited plan, Nielsen wireless specialist Roger Entner said.
"The one that has probably to move the quickest is Verizon ... they're growing and their data consumption is growing substantially," Entner said.
Verizon executives have already discussed the likelihood of moving away from unlimited plans after the operator kicks off service late this year on a high-speed network it is building.
Some analysts said Verizon Wireless may wait until it launches the new service to pull away from unlimited pricing. But it will react very soon if AT&T's cheapest plan gains ground.
"Verizon is very quick to respond," Entner said. "If they see in their numbers that the AT&T price change is moving customers to AT&T and away from Verizon, then they'll follow."
The end of unlimited pricing is seen helping profit margins at AT&T and any rivals who follow suit. For instance, AT&T's new $25 plan for 2 gigabytes of data represents a $5 per month revenue cut per user. Yet it will be cheaper for AT&T to support 2 gigabytes of data than unlimited services, which have put a massive strain on its network.
Charles Golvin from Forrester Research said AT&T's $15 plan looks even better from a profit standpoint because it involves supporting 10 times less data than the 2 gigabyte plan.
"The margins are considerably higher for that plan," he said.
While many commentators complained bitterly about the new service pricing, analysts say that it is actually good news for all but the heaviest smartphone data users, which AT&T says represent just 2 percent of customers.
Entner said that on average smartphone users roughly tripled their data downloads in the past year.
Even if usage keeps growing at this rate, most consumers will save money under the new usage-based AT&T plan, he said.
(Reporting by Sinead Carew, editing by Matthew Lewis)
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See All Comments (15) | Post Comment
Jun 04, 2010 8:51pm EDT
Except users don’t know how to count data; nor is there a running tally on their screen. I don’t see how an unknown cost can help encourage adoption. I remember the old data plans and how if I used them I got charged discouraged me from buying a smart phone before the unlimited plans. It also hurts the app stores. In the end; if you are going to limit my data on your network I’d rather not be connected to it. I’d rather have an iPod touch then have metered data. Look at how subscription rates have increased since the iPhone and unlimited data. Same thing happened with the internet. Also; people don’t like the idea of coming anywhere close to the data limit. They’ll use less so they have ‘data to use later.’ The same thing happens with money in banks. Fear of uncertain billing will drive people away not towards the network.
kylewat
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Jun 04, 2010 9:22pm EDT
Reminds me of the bad old days of cell phones about 15 years ago when roaming charges would be crippling.
Perhaps a good idea in the short run. In the long run, it discourages people with signing up with smart phones.
johnste3
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Jun 04, 2010 9:40pm EDT
T-mobile unlimited data plan is just $10.
Thanks,
giggich
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Jun 04, 2010 10:07pm EDT
Yeah well I know what my data consumption is and when I hear my provider change the rules without warning, I do exactly what I did today and leave AT&T in the dust and don’t look back! Even though it wouldn’t affect me until I had to renew my contract but I would prefer to go anyone else that actually has a working fast network, and that is obviously not AT&T!
rayden777
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Jun 04, 2010 10:34pm EDT
AT&T don’t really want people using their network for communicating. They just want to charge people up the lazy river for lines and bandwidth funded entirely by public subsidy. AT&T has network headroom by the ton but is totally useless at managing resources.
If Verizon were ever to follow the “shut up and pay” business style of AT&T I’d be leaving Verizon at once.
HBC
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Jun 04, 2010 10:40pm EDT
I know AT&T had talked about giving data usage warnings on the iPad and with the use of text messaging, it should be easy to do and it would be smart to setup a system for informing the user. Otherwise, you might get the FCC going again with outrageous bills because of the overages.
robbydek
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Jun 04, 2010 10:58pm EDT
This is why I remain loyal to Sprint. They don`t jack you around like AT&T.Sprint has the best unlimeted plan Plus the coverage is much better.
Perzi
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Jun 04, 2010 11:05pm EDT
That is BS, Sprint changed the “unlimited data plan” years ago, lost me as a customer as a result, and charged me early termination fees to boot.
They changed the plan to 5gb, and when you went over you got one warning, then you lost your service.
nice try Sprint PCS, but I still remember PCS stands for Pretty Crappy Service.
Rollout
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Jun 04, 2010 11:11pm EDT
Apparently AT&T has a lock on the iPhone for the foreseeable future. Otherwise they wouldn’t be doing this.
jaypo
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See All Comments (15)
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