AT&T Simplifying Texting Plans, Enlisting Best Buy in Battle Against Verizon iPhone

[tuna]

"the government should step in" and "free market" don't go together, fyi...

Take an economics class. "Free market" is the name for a type of market structure, as compared to things like "oligopolistic competition", "monopolistic competition", and "monopoly". "Free market" does not mean 'companies do whatever they want', thats not even the type of phenomena that it is describing.

The cellular service market is not free market competition, it is oligopolistic competition. Oligopolistic competition is typified be domination by a few large companies (AT&T and Verizon have 70% market share, add Sprint and T-Mobile and you are at 95% of market share), where there are very high marketing and branding expenses and higher margins.

Free market competition is typified by many firms, competing in offering a relatively commoditized product with with lower marketing expenditures and lower profit margins.

This is a case where the government could step in and enact measures to commoditize the cellular service market and make other changes that would move the market towards free market competition and better price and service for consumers versus the current oligopolistic market where massive market-dominating corporations abuse their market power to keep prices high.

 

[elhungarian]

Wirelessly posted (Opera/9.80 (BlackBerry; Opera Mini/5.1.21052/22.414; U; en) Presto/2.5.25 Version/10.54)

I smell fear.

 

[unlinked]

Spam texts should be illegal and punishable under federal law.

One of the nice things about the IPhone is you can send it wap links and they never get displayed to the user. The user still gets billed. I'm sure there is some unscrupulous company making millions out of that somewhere.

 

[RaceTripper]

Let's call horse a horse: AT&T sticking it to casual texters for an extra $120. Bend over please.

 

[powerbook911]

AT&T are morons.

I will keep my $5 plan, but if I ever have to change, I will have no plan because of this.

What is the pay as you go price? 25 cents? That would get you 40-odd messages for $10, and most of the time I only have 5-10 per month.

I didn't mind $5 a month in case I went over, but at $10 per month, I will just be on pay as you go text plan.

 

[NoExpectations]

Spam texts should be illegal and punishable under federal law.

Is there a National "Do Not Text" list that we can join (like the "Do not Call" list)?

 

[VanNess]

We've similarly heard from AT&T employees, even those who are not involved in customer-facing positions, who have received "talking points" from the company about why the iPhone on AT&T is better than the Verizon iPhone. Among the key talking points being highlighted by AT&T: network speed (memo claims 35% faster than Verizon on average nationally), ability to talk and surf simultaneously (memo claims one-third of customers use it daily), global network coverage, and Wi-Fi hotspots.

The memo goes on to note that AT&T is proud to have partnered with Apple over the last three and a half years on a ground-breaking device and that it continues to be on "great terms" with Apple. Finally, AT&T points to the fact that two-thirds of its iPhone users were already AT&T customers to begin with, and 80% of iPhone subscribers are on family or business plans, which make it more difficult to switch carriers.

Article Link: AT&T Simplifying Texting Plans, Enlisting Best Buy in Battle Against Verizon iPhone

Ah yes, this from the company (AT&T) that is number one...on just about every list of the worst telecom providers in the US!

First of all, as an iPad user in San Francisco, CA, I have first hand experience with AT&T's abysmal excuse for a network. Regarding network speed, the usual here is less than a 56K connection - far far less. And this is with the device showing 3G connectivity with full bars or 4 bars of signal strength. So the claim that AT&T is superior in terms of network speed is laughable. You simply can't do any worse than what AT&T has provided in the bay area.

Likewise, the claim that you can simultaneously surf and talk is laughable, unless the party you're calling doesn't mind taking a long powder while you attempt to "surf".

The final point does ring true: AT&T's only advantage is customer lock-in. No matter how bad their service is, the financial handcuffs that result from the contract you have with this outfit will keep you from even thinking about switching.

Not exactly a point must companies would trumpet, at least respectable ones.

 

[mdatwood]

"the government should step in" and "free market" don't go together, fyi...

Actually that's not true at all, and doubly so when public resources are being used. Cell carriers are akin to public utilities because they must be granted rights to the publicly owned spectrum prior to doing business. A finite spectrum leads to a natural oligopoly where it's nearly impossible for other competitors to enter the market.

Even the most ardent free market person will cede that the government has the right to put certain restrictions in place when dealing with public resources.

 

[Flitzy]

Why do people even text anymore?

I can email, chat/message Facebook friends, IM with Trillian, Facetime, Skype.

What is the point of paying extra for archaic text messaging? If I absolutely need to send one, it costs .25.

 

[kdarling]

Text messages are data (a small amount of data too), so include them in the data plan rather than making users pay an absurd amount for something that really isn't costing the carriers much of anything.

TEXT MESSAGES ARE NOT DATA.

Pardon my bold, but this misconception gets repeated way too often.

Text messages are the equivalent of an incoming phone call. They are basically tucked into the incoming page message that usually causes your phone to ring. That's why they're so small.

It's also why they're charged very much like a tiny phone call is... basically a minimum 10 cents... depending on how much time you've prebought.

Offhand, here are some other differences:

DATA

• Charged by byte transfer amount.
• Connection always initiated by the phone.
• Uses more battery to watch for "push" data.
• Connection split off to the internet asap.
• If other computer offline, too bad.

SMS

• Charged by the message (phone call)
• Carriers find target phone anywhere in the world.
• Real push, saves battery over data methods.
• Carriers do all carriage of messages internally.
• Incoming message requires phone authentication/setup same as call.
• If recipient offline, must be stored and forwarded later by a carrier.
• Carriers must also maintain SMS, MMS and Mail converters.

 

[Jcoz]

Why do people even text anymore?

I can email, chat/message Facebook friends, IM with Trillian, Facetime, Skype.

What is the point of paying extra for archaic text messaging? If I absolutely need to send one, it costs .25.

Right because everyone in the world has an andriod or iOS smart phone.

 

[NoExpectations]

Actually that's not true at all, and doubly so when public resources are being used. Cell carriers are akin to public utilities because they must be granted rights to the publicly owned spectrum prior to doing business. A finite spectrum leads to a natural oligopoly where it's nearly impossible for other competitors to enter the market.

Even the most ardent free market person will cede that the government has the right to put certain restrictions in place when dealing with public resources.

Not true. All Wireless Carriers buy their spectrum from the US Gov. Blame the US Gov for not giving you a royalty check.

 

[BJMRamage]

What would sell me on texting and “staying” with ATT is saying, “Hey, we realize txting is only using DATA and as such we are allowing TXTING 4 FREE, so long as you stay within your DATA package as TXT will now solely be calculated at DATA RATES.”

Anything else is PURE MONEY for them.

 

[Outrigger]

Why do people still crank out these huge piles of textmessages when they can write emails to their smartphone-carrying friends for free?

All my personal friends have iPhones, Crackberrys or HTC Android devices... The rest has Nokias with internet access.

I can understand up to 10 textmessages per month, but 1000??? C'mon...

vSpacken

so you equate your experience of all your friends carrying smartphones into the mass population all carrying smartphones?

 

[triceretops]

Does that say $10 for each additional message?!

Yes it does, doesn't it.

 

[freeman727]

I'm glad to be grandfathered in to both unlimited data and 200 text plans. If I were a new smartphone user interested in the iphone, I would definitely go to Verizon for iphone.

BTW, not to thread hijack, is the Android a reasonable alternative to iOS? I think many people are staying with iphones b/c of itunes music which wouldn't play on an Android phone.

 

[triceretops]

Should be $10 for unlim. Text is such a ripoff!

Considering the additional bandwidth required and cost of message handling, texting should be free or at most 1/10th what they are charging.

Of course, the companies aren't doing this to be nice guys, gotta pay those huge bonuses to the CEO's and board of directors.

 

[mdatwood]

Not true. All Wireless Carriers buy their spectrum from the US Gov. Blame the US Gov for not giving you a royalty check.

What part is not true? The government sells them the right to use the public spectrum on behalf of the population. Where did I ask for a royalty check?

 

[ten-oak-druid]

TEXT MESSAGES ARE NOT DATA.

Pardon my bold, but this misconception gets repeated way too often.

Text messages are the equivalent of an incoming phone call. They are basically tucked into the incoming page message that usually causes your phone to ring. That's why they're so small.

It's also why they're charged very much like a tiny phone call is... basically a minimum 10 cents... depending on how much time you've prebought.

...

Well it is actually data being transmitted but I know you are pointing out classifications from a different perspective.

I think your point that text messages are equivalent to phone calls is very revealing. If so then a text message should be part of the phone plan already. Perhaps what needs to be done is to have text messages each count as a 15 second call against your minutes.

 

[NoExpectations]

Considering the additional bandwidth required and cost of message handling, texting should be free or at most 1/10th what they are charging.

Of course, the companies aren't doing this to be nice guys, gotta pay those huge bonuses to the CEO's and board of directors.

Sure, I want everything to be free too. But for crying out loud, it's a penny per text!

The USPS charges 44 cents to mail a letter....and that "message" takes days to reach the destination.

There is a lot of technology, equipment, resources, HW/SW, maintenance, etc. to get your message from point A to point B. A penny does not sound like a rip-off to me.

 

[dwman]

$10 for 1000 texts. Hmmm....that's 1 cent per text for instant communication to anyone, to virtually anywhere on planet earth.

Not bad.

Not exactly. Here is the U.S., international texts cost considerably more.

 

[freeman727]

Sure, I want everything to be free too. But for crying out loud, it's a penny per text!

The USPS charges 44 cents to mail a letter....and that "message" takes days to reach the destination.

There is a lot of technology, equipment, resources, HW/SW, maintenance, etc. to get your message from point A to point B. A penny does not sound like a rip-off to me.

If you take the postage model then we should pay per text. To have people pay for a preset number of texts that they won't use is ridiculous!

 

[HBOC]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-gb) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

This isn't a rumor for this site. Who cares about AT&T. It has nothing to do with macs and nothing to do with the iphone

U serious? This has to do with the iPhone, as AT&T currently is the sole carrier for the iPhone ATM. If you don't like the thread, move on. Didn't know you were the "police".

Does anybody have a 500 messages for $5 plan? My $5 plan only gives 200 messages -- did they change this?

I have the 200 for $5 plan. I believe I would be "grandfathered" in, as I had Cingular, then AT&T bought them, or whatnot. Cingular was better, and I miss them, lol

 

[ctyhntr]

Analysts are predicting 23% defection rates. If they want to battle Verizon, they should change their data plan tiers to re-include the unlimited, to match Verizon's unlimited plan. AT&T is shooting themselves in the foot with these new text plan rates. Unless AT&T marketing department is working undercover for Verizon, they should all be fired. They're further alienating their customer base with their missteps.

From last year alone,
1. Upping the termination charge
2. Changing the data rate plans
2a 200mb and 1GB
2b. Retiring the unlimited data rate plans.
3. locking the sim on ipad/iphone
4. Charging for tethering

 

[Rajani Isa]

As for all the free txts programs, no thanks.

- You too can have free text messaging! And nights at Keys from $80/Night!

I despise AT&T’s customer service and support (their coverage/reliability is fine for me) but THAT is something I use constantly. I’m constantly putting someone on speaker so I can look up a menu, or hours, or directions, or movie details, or Google some info. “Let me call you back” is a thing of the past for me

As someone who's delivered big-ticket items, I've used this - it's nice being able to reference other streets/landmarks when getting directions from someone when the maps don't locate the customer that clearly.

Spam texts should be illegal and punishable under federal law.

As some people are charged for them, aren't they?

EDIT: In fact, quick google search got me this :

Beginning in 2004, the federal CAN-SPAM law made it illegal to send unsolicited commercial text messages. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has compiled a list of websites to which marketers may not send unsolicited e-mail because the messages go to wireless devices. This list was compiled with the help of the cell phone carriers.
If you are receiving unwanted messages, it is important to notify your phone carrier so they can get an idea of the scope of the problem. But remember, text messages from your phone carrier regarding your account are not considered "spam" within the meaning of the law.
You can report unwanted text messages to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FCC cannot award monetary or other damages and does not settle individual consumer complaints, but it can issue citations or impose fines against those violating the CAN-SPAM Act, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the National Do-Not-Call Registry, and the FCC's related rules.

Why do people still crank out these huge piles of textmessages when they can write emails to their smartphone-carrying friends for free?

All my personal friends have iPhones, Crackberrys or HTC Android devices... The rest has Nokias with internet access.

I can understand up to 10 textmessages per month, but 1000??? C'mon...

vSpacken

Four of my co-workers have iPhones. The rest have nothing with a data plan.

Furthermore, for them to email me I'd have to share my email address - while the ones with iPhones I wouldn't mind this, the ones at work who text me (not on an iPhone) are not who I'd want to share my email with. No, I won't join Facebook to be your farmville neighbor. Not even sorry about it.