More users, more strain on networks, more maintenance costs, more marketing costs, higher wages, more competition, yadda yadda. The more things change, the more they change the same. I'm not an economist - but I would venture a guess that profit margins are pretty much in line with the cost of inflation + other costs. So that's a wash in my book
More users equates to more strain on the network. True, and this applies to standard on-phone data use as well. A service provider has to increase bandwidth and coverage in order to support a growing customer base, which adds to their cost.
However, this cost is more than offset by an explosion of new customers. New cell towers will only be built in areas where congestion is high, and newer cell towers have greater multiplexing capability, allowing them to handle more concurrent users.
The
cost per customer decreases over time despite the cost to build new towers or upgrade existing ones. If AT&T were losing customers, then of course the cost per customer would rise.
I'm rarely in a situation where I need to tether and I'm happy to pay a per KB rate or whatever if I had to or add a service for a month like I did when I travelled overseas and added international data.
I would argue the opposite. If tethering is something I would do only occasionally, I would not want to be nickled-and-dimed. Some things should just be included up to a limit.
ATT won't change unlimited data to a capped situation though because the seconds they do that, they allow every customer to cancel their contract. They can only offer additional services, not cut back on the service you're already contracted for without a HUGE problem
This problem is
easily overcome. Like this:
From AT&T to our iPhone customers:
1. Your current contract says Do Not Tether.
2. We are amending your contract by giving you a new feature.
3. You can now tether up to X GB per month free of charge.
4. If you want more then X GB per month, the fee structure will be ....
Done. Customers can legally cancel their service contracts only if the charges for
existing features are increased. This is easy to justify: A contract is a fixed-term agreement with fixed costs. If the costs change (i.e. increase), then the contract has been violated, but if a new feature is added, the contract remains perfectly viable.
