One customers request

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@ridgekarma wrote:
"So you want AT&T to sell you device for about $400 less than the current market price, and then offer a plan you can use for all your high-speed internet needs....for a lower price than the current unlimited plan?"

Ding , ding, he gets it! ….I'm surmising by your surprised response that you don't remember a time when ATT did exactly that...for years, I was able to shop on ATT's website , and peruse a great number of phone makers, for the low low price of $99 for some of them. Top tier stuff too...They had been refurbished and looked and worked as if new. It was a great, great thing. At one time or another,  I had an iteration of the iPhone, then a very cool HTC model (the very first with stereo front facing speakers I think), then a Samsung , before they dropped the program.

 

They did no such thing. First, the plans back then were much more expensive. It was about $50 for 450 minutes (but unlimited nights and weekends!), then $20 for unlimited texts...we're at $70 and haven't even talked about data yet!

 

The also required a 2-year contract, so you had to stay with AT&T for 2 years or pay an ETF of up to $325. 

 

That $99 was but a small portion of the true cost of that plan. 

 

As for the plan, it comes back to a point I made earlier and the analogy that in this day and age of HD streaming content and high usage, that the 'baby steps' years of charging for digital consumption byte for byte or bit for bit so to speak dinging via throttling or charges should be pretty much over , imo. Plenty of people like me I'm sure, have recognized the possibility of a single bill that allowed them cellphone AND home and cellphone internet service via hotspotting. It's there, it's doable...what right minded consumer would NOT want this? : )

 

Every right-minded customer would want everything they can get for free. That doesn't mean such a scenario is realistic. AT&T has to make money, or no customer will get anything from it. 

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@lizdance apparently the concept of 'flat fee' eludes you lol. Multiple PHONE and only multiple phone households would possibly  need another solution. But others with a single phone yet multiple other devices needing internet access, what a boon it would be! Anyway, I absolutely love my idea and ATTs powers that be take it into consideration along with bringing back the $99 refurb option.

Ciao.

@ridgekarma

Quit being cheap and pay for your phone like the rest of the world.

@GLIMMERMAN76.   Sir Alec Guiness would be proud. 😉

@ridgekarma

Hmmmm.. sounds like you didn’t actually think of anyone but yourself.  🤨

   But it’s not all about you.  It’s families and multi line accounts.  People who don’t use data that much.  It’s about a single person who can’t afford $75 or doesn’t want to pay that much.   Or someone who doesn’t want ATT crappy refurb phone.  And about ATT making the nut each month, and the ability to provide service to all subscribers, which at this time, cheap unlimited data cannot do.

    No, a flat fee concept is not lost...  it would mean every phone line would cost the same and have the same amount of usage ability (alleged).  

    It’s not a flat fee if the amount changes for different circumstances 

@ridgekarma While your 'idea' sounds as crazy right now as if someone wanted a grocery store to offer one low price, say $180 a month, for anyone to come in and get whatever they wanted whenever they wanted, it actually is not that insane in the bigger scheme of things. It could be viewed more as an all-you-can-eat buffet.

One of the big changes that happened to data sales was when TMobile made their online menu much easier to read with much simpler choices. This reduced confusion for customers and lowered the overhead associated with managing different options.

Also, technology has been reducing the costs associated with cellular data transmission. At some point in the future one could imagine a time when the difference between using a little data and a lot of data is not worth the cost to manage it.

And even though right now more apps keep demanding more data, that trend will also possibly slow and stop eventually. Think about when computer processors used to become obsolete every few years or when HD screens kept getting greater and greater resolution until it hurt your eyes and was no longer a benefit.

So in those ways the industry is actually converging on your vision for the future and if data transmission costs fall to such a point, which is not impossible, we will inevitably see that day in our lifetimes. 

@ridgekarma When prices for data transmission fall below the cost to manage different plans, when there is no longer greater utility for more data use, when the supply for the market is saturated, then your idea, which right now sounds like paying a grocery store $200 a month to come and get whatever you want whenever you want, will sound more like an all-you-can-eat buffet. As it is, the industry has already transformed from a restaurant with a complicated and expensive menu to a fast food meal deal drive through. So it is not impossible that we might see your vision happen in our lifetimes, for a price that is even less than what even you can imagine.

I think the bottom line is that the phone/mobile data market is a competitive one, with 3 or 4 major players and numerous minor/niche players.  If someone felt that there was money to be made offering something like what you are asking for, they would offer it.  Since they don't, they clearly judge that as being something that few would want to pay for and/or that the realistic pricing would be waaaay higher than you are offering to pay (I assume the latter, which would then drive down the former).  If you are willing to pay twice or more what the current unlimited plans cost in order to be granted priority access to cell towers so your speed is never throttled and your hotspot usage isn't limited (and with no geographical limitations), one or more of the companies would likely accommodate you, but there are probably few that would join you - not enough to make a viable product offering (and certainly not as an exclusive - buy this because it's all we offer - plan), in particular since the normal unlimited plans rarely throttle regardless of your level of usage, and ISP supplied internet data is faster and cheaper for devices that rarely or never require mobile use.

Will 5g mobile change this?  That depends on how well it works in practice as opposed to the lab and toy tests, how completely they build out the infrastructure, and how much they charge - it seems unlikely that the carriers will offer much more more speed and data (that they have to spend a lot of capital to provide) and yet dramatically lower their prices (or even keep them the same), but that is just my take...