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Bruised mobile carriers such as AT&T and Verizon are 'fighting back' against Apple's iPhone, despite the fact that the device has helped them eke out consistently higher average revenue per wireless subscribers since its launch. To hear the carriers tell it, the iPhone is a major inhibitor to their profits as last year they were 'only' generating wireless service profit margins in the 38% to 42% range. But ever since these beleaguered companies started 'fighting back' by implementing data caps, increasing fees for device upgrades and implementing longer waiting periods before users can switch devices, they’ve seen their wireless service profit margins surge. AT&T reported a 45% margin in Q2 2012 and Verizon reported a record-high 49% margin."
Posted by samzenpus on Monday August 06, @01:25PM
from the not-our-fault dept.
zacharye writes "Bruised mobile carriers such as AT&T and Verizon are 'fighting back' against Apple's iPhone, despite the fact that the device has helped them eke out consistently higher average revenue per wireless subscribers since its launch. To hear the carriers tell it, the iPhone is a major inhibitor to their profits as last year they were 'only' generating wireless service profit margins in the 38% to 42% range. But ever since these beleaguered companies started 'fighting back' by implementing data caps, increasing fees for device upgrades and implementing longer waiting periods before users can switch devices, they’ve seen their wireless service profit margins surge. AT&T reported a 45% margin in Q2 2012 and Verizon reported a record-high 49% margin."
Carriers didnt anticipate the amount of people that would want smart phones and how much data they would consume. They are looking ahead way past cell phone users. Household appliances will offer some sort of internet technology at some point and so will other electronics. So in an essence they are looking at the big picture and ripping off the band-aid now. Training customers to pay more and receive less. What pisses me off and I do love my gadgets, but it will get to the point where it will be impossible to just be a regular cell phone user. My teenage son's regular cell broke, the local Verizon store had about 3 choices in phones that did not require a data plan. At one time my cell bill used to be my least expense to now is one of the most expensive.
Carriers didnt anticipate the amount of people that would want smart phones and how much data they would consume.
That's BS, they're raking in the money and laughing all the way to the bank, this isn't an "oh no, we are overwhelmed so we need more money to build more infrastructure," it's "you need this service and you have very few options, the ball is in my court and you will pay what we tell you to pay" - borderline extortion in my book. They're trying to look like the good guys here, and people are actually falling for it.
I think that the cellular carriers failed to plan for the increased data traffic and are trying to play catch up at this point. I am not excusing them for their lack of planning, but ultimately it is the consumer who pays for it in the end.
I could be wrong, but I have heard that android phones also use data.
Not as much as iPhones.
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At one time my cell bill used to be my least expense to now is one of the most expensive. 
