Talage
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http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Dispatch/market-dispatches.aspx?post=1419669&_blg=1,1419669
| Quote : | "OK, you truly wild and crazy iPhone users.
You know who you are: the ones who check out every application, play every game, call up every piece of news and check out every restaurant within 100 miles.
You are causing AT&T (T) a big problem. You're swamping the system, and AT&T, which has an exclusive right to market the iPhone in the United States, wants you to get a life and dial back.
How AT&T plans to get you to cut back isn't quite clear, The Wall Street Journal said today. But they won't slap you around. They'll offer incentives.
AT&T's problem is a problem for everyone in the wireless industry: how to cope with exponential growth in the use of data services such as video and Internet browsing, which require more bandwidth.
The dilemma, the Journal noted, has been particularly acute for AT&T because of the millions of customers using Apple's (AAPL) iPhone, the iconic smart phone.
IPhone users so love their phones that they use them all the time. The problem is especially big in New York and San Francisco, two of the trendiest towns around.
The rate of broken calls and data feeds has grown so fast that Verizon Communications (VZ) has launched an ad campaign to get AT&T customers to switch.
The average iPhone user consumes five to seven times more data on a monthly basis than an average subscriber who mainly uses a handset for phone calls, research firm Sanford C. Bernstein says.
Even compared with the average smart-phone user on a high-speed network, iPhone owners use twice the amount of data.
So, iPhone user, you're too good a customer. And you cause an additional problem.
AT&T may have to invest more in network investments -- switching gear, cell-phone towers and the like -- because you like your iPhone so much. That may eat into AT&T's bottom line.
Result, Toni Sacconaghi, a Bernstein analyst, told the Journal: "The economics of the iPhone are not as rosy as they might first appear."
So, what incentives might AT&T offer? Sorry, they won't pay you not to use your phone.
But the options include instituting usage fees that charge customers based on how much data flow through the device.
Right now, you can get a calling plan from $40 to $100 a month for an iPhone -- plus $30 a month for unlimited data. The average iPhone users pays $95 a month for the service.
The telecom giant could also charge $5 to $20 a month for the right to send text messages.
It could -- gasp! -- slow down the data flowing to your iPhone if your usage is hurting other customers.
AT&T has tried reasoning, the Journal said. They've showed some users just how much data they use. Ralph de la Vega, who runs AT&T's wireless and consumer businesses, told the paper that most had no idea and cut back on their own.
The next question is whether AT&T will have to make an offer the iPhone user can't refuse." |
What do you mean upgrade?! We only added millions of bandwidth hogging devices to our network!
[Edited on December 9, 2009 at 10:47 PM. Reason : V I thought about it smart ass, but this is as much about AT&T's network as it is the iphone] 12/9/2009 10:35:53 PM
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