03-30-2006, 08:30 PM
|
|
Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
|
|
Price Drops in Mobile Phone Plans to Slow
"The price of cellular phone calls should decline more slowly in 2006 than in recent times as the duration of phone calls expands less rapidly, a top executive at Sprint Nextel Corp. said on Wednesday. U.S. operators have driven down the price of mobile phone calls in recent years as they tried to win new customers or steal each other's subscribers in the fiercely competitive market, which had as many as six national operators at one point. But as increases in the amount of time customers spend on the phone slow, operators will likely be less aggressive in lowering their prices this year, according to Len Lauer, chief operating Officer of Sprint, the No. 3 U.S. cellphone service."
Cheaper minutes might not get much cheaper, but I wonder what will happen to data plans in the USA? Based on what I've read about data plans, they've gotten better but still have a way to go - especially on the EVDO side of things. I feel a twinge of jealousy when I compare plans from American carriers with what carriers in Canada offer. It's like we're going backwards in time up here - we used to have flat-rate GPRS for about $75 a month, which at the time (2003?) was revolutionary. Since then Fido, the carrier that was offering it, was bought by Rogers, their only competitor in the GSM space, and the flat-rate pricing is no longer offered. Now rates are $100 CND ($90 USD) for 100 MB of data per month. Meanwhile I've heard of people on T-Mobile in the US getting unlimited GPRS for $4.95 a month. 8O
Europe isn't much better off with their data plans from what I know - Paul from MoDaCo in the UK was thrilled that his carrier was finally offering flat-rate plans, years after other places in the world. What about where you live? Do you feel like your rate plans have been getting cheaper, or has your usage of data plans for your Windows Mobile devices been offsetting the savings?
|
| |
|
|
|
03-30-2006, 08:45 PM
|
|
Philosopher
Join Date: Apr 2002
Posts: 574
|
|
Well,
In the Netherlands T-Mobile offers flat fee GPRS (maximum 1 Gb) for 9,95 euros if you also buy 150 minute/month subscription (also 9,95 euros). So for 19,90 euros a month you basically can call and use data as much as you like. it is quite a good offer, and i see a lot of other Telco's follow T-Mobile.
Jaap
|
| |
|
|
|
03-30-2006, 08:59 PM
|
|
Intellectual
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 200
|
|
Canadian data rates are insane - it's almost as if they are engaging in price-fixing behavior, as all of them charge roughly the same amount, and pricing hasn't gone down since data was first introduced...
|
| |
|
|
|
03-31-2006, 07:39 AM
|
|
5000+ Posts? I Should OWN This Site!
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 5,616
|
|
I was on Rogers' 2MB/$12/month plan. I decided to upgrade as I thought it would be a better deal and I was forcing myself to not use data on my phone so I wouldn't go over. So I upgraded and tried that for a while, but I wasn't using that much data. I tried to go back to the 2MB/$12/month plan, but they had discontinued it in the meantime, in favor of a 1.5MB/$15/month plan. :bad-words:
__________________
iPhone 4! ☠☠☠ Mid-2010 15" MacBook Pro! ☠☠☠ Gateway LT2102h! ☠☠☠ Dell XPS M1210!
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Linear Mode
