59% of iPhone users spend more than $100 per month on carrier bills - Page 2

That's a debatable question, but not one with a clear cut answer, and definitely not one solvable on AppleInsider...

It could be argued that your (sarcastic) affirmation happens to be true.

1- If the people of America decide to elect a President on that demand alone, who would you be to say they're wrong? It's democracy.

2- If the costs involved with offering unlimited data plans to everyone are affordable through fair and efficient use of taxes (which remains to be proven), it seems clear that it's a better option than expensive data plans for everyone through unfair rates and inefficient use of the legal system (which is currently, according to the data presented earlier, the case in America in the telecom industry).

 

I happen to believe that a limited data plan for free for everyone, paid for through taxes, and a commercial offer on top of it for customers with needs, probably is the best possible situation, but I understand that people might disagree. My solution, obviously, would allow productive people to be more efficient, engender a richer and more open country, and enhance freedom of speech (for better and for worse). It does mean that some losers out there get free service while offering absolutely nothing in exchange, which seems to be so horrible to the average american that they'd rather go for a suboptimal situation for everyone than allow Joe Drunk to have the basic health/public transportation/communication needs covered.

Actually I am pretty sure Sprint is still making a nice profit off of me at only $50 a month, just not as big as their regular $79 a month customers for similar plans.

 

There are also plenty of other options like Pageplus, Straight Talk, Virgin Mobile, Ting, Boost Mobile and many others that offer plans from $25 to $60 for nearly unlimited everything and some allow an iPhone as well. They don't own their own towers or networks and just pay the big 4 carriers to use their networks. Even as middlemen companies they are far cheaper than the big 4 and everyone is making a profit presumably or they wouldn't be doing it. That tells me that the big 4 can make a profit for far less than what they charge and a lot of that cost is in the phone subsidy.

Yes, that definitely sounds sensible!

Still, I'm happy I can run my iPhone on 15€ a month, and have spent (iPhone comprised, latest model when bought) a global 1200 euros over the last three years... Pretty sure it beats most iPhone owners in the US :D

But, Sir, as you say, you are one "special" customer with a special plan not available to new customers.

 

Here one can do a pretty good deal as a new customer. The really bad deals does not exist here.

the "problems" mostly concern coverage.

 

It all boil down to Telia was the AT&T of Sweden, they were given the job by the government to

supply the whole country with a cell phone system in the 80's....They had to cover the entire country.

Sweden, like the US is A LOT of territory which is...wilderness - nobody lives there. They fixed

coverage anyway... at a cost of course. And Telia was 25% more expensive in those days.

 

When the cellphone-boom came around 95, new companys formed. They ONLY built their masts

where people lived. In this way Sweden is llike Canada 85% lives within 100 miles of the american border....

Up north in both canada and Sweden theres mmostly emptiness.

These new players (Tele2, 3, Comviq, Europolitan etc) stated that they covered 98% of the POPULATION....

Which meant that they only cobered 50% of the territory....

 

For many years (I still think this is the case) that Telia is good everywhere, the others if you live in an urban area...

In other news, water is wet.

I had the original iPhone with ATT and I just felt I was ripped off every month. I switched to Sprint and am saving about $15/mo. In Oct. I will be switching either to the Walmart cell plan or the Cricket plan with an iP5.

 

These POS carriers are gouging us! :)

What I learned is we pay about $129 for two phones -- one is an android "smart" phone and the other some kind of blackberry without the data plan. The Android is OK for streaming music or GPS but nothing sexy -- with T-Mobile. I think they are ACTUALLY unlimited but there's no way you could stream enough to hit a cap. So I could have had an iPhone for the POS I've been dealing with? All "smart phone" data plans are expensive. At least we don't have the total ripoff that was "texting" to deal with (most expensive product per ounce on the planet). Either I should just jump in with an iPhone, or I should sell smart phones because it's a better business than drug dealing. And seriously, the Android phone experience (a MyTouch) is totally underwhelming.

Which is why I will never give up my grandfathered plans.  Im also shocked at how much the typical American is paying for their cellular service.  I was with AT&T from 2004 to 2010.  During that time my bill was pretty much always $39.99 for 450 anytime minutes + $15 for 1000 text messages.  It was until 2009 with AT&T that I even started using a data plan of any sort.. and that was mainly because I switched from a Blackberry 8810 to an iPhone3GS.  I remember distinctly wondering if the extra $29 a month for unlimited data would even be worth it.  Even with all that I had a 15% company discount.. meaning my bill with taxes was never above $80 a month.

 

As soon as the iPhone arrived on Verizon, I switched over.  Mainly because AT&T's signal was inconsistent and their simply was no reception at my job.  Everyday I would get a bunch of text messages when I left the building for lunch.. at the end of the day to head home.  Now that I've switched over to Verizon my bill isnt much different.  In fact its cheaper.  $39.99 for 450 anytime minutes + $10 for 500 messages + $29.99 for unlimited data.. with a 20% company discount means my bill is right around $70 a month including all taxes.  I now have the iPhone5 so I get 4G/LTE speeds.. and Verizon doesnt cap/limit/throttle their "unlimited" customers like AT&T does.  My Verizon iPhone works at my job.. and pretty much everywhere else.  And of course Facetime works over cellular and I've never been *warned* for tethering.. even though I do it without paying extra for it.  All things that would be a negative if I stuck with AT&T.

 

As much as I would like to leave Verizon to try StraightTalk.. or some other, cheaper middle-man carrier.  I'm just afraid it wont be worth the $20 savings a month.  Until then Im sticking with my iPhone5 and Verizon LTE for the next couple of years.  As the catch about Verizon's unlimited plan.. is that you cannot keep the plan and get a discounted rate on a new subsidized phone.  Want a new phone?  Then you have to pay full price for it.. or get the discounted price and switch to a tiered/shared plan.

In case you aren't aware you aren't actually grandfathered into those plans. They can decide to eliminate plans at any time. To be clear, even if you were under a contract they still have that power to alter a plan, but it would also nullify the contract which would mean you wouldn't owe an ETF if you decided to switch carriers. I assume you have been out of your plan for a long time now. That said, it really behooves them to keep happy customers happy so long as they are using dozens of GB a mount on an unlimited data plan… like I was doing, which is why AT&T knocked me off my off-contract unlimited plan.

It's one of the big issues with that type of business. If you give the business the ability to act as they do, they rip people off the way we see. If you don't, they can't adapt and may die.

I don't think there is a solution... but I'm not too disquieted about the ability of ATT execs to drive expensive cars. I hope one of them owns a Tornado.

 

(Come on, come on... Tornado... De la Vega...)

Ah yes, good advice coming from someone who argues tooth and nail from a flawed position.

Not always. 

I was one of the "lucky" ones with "unlimited data" with AT&T. Then they started throttling my data after 2GB, to the point that it became completely unusable. I was paying $90/month, not exactly a bargain. I filed complaints with the FCC and the PUC, which went nowhere. And then I figured if I'm going to get crap service I might as well PAY for crap service. Switched to StraightTalk, and I'm now paying $30/month for unlimited calling, unlimited texting (including international, which AT&T had the gall to charge me extra for, on top of any text after the 200th), and 2GB of data. Screw you, AT&T. Never again.

It's 16 euros for the first mobile line if you're already a Free customer. The second line will cost you 20 euros (granted, it's still a bargain).

And it's not "unlimited everything". International text messages are charged at exorbitant rates (1 text message from France to the UK: 25 euro cents), and data is throttled after 3GB. There are also massive complaints from people who are accessing the network through Orange's towers (Free needs to supplement its mesh of transmitters and signed a roaming agreement with Orange, which is severely throttling data for Free customers for a reason that has not been made public yet).

Not that I'm complaining -- I signed up for their $20/month plan which ends up costing me considerably less than my former pay-as-you-go Virgin Mobile plan for my frequent trips there.

When I was with Rogers (2 years ago), I was paying $136.50/month (taxes in) and that gave me 6GB, 1000 minutes of talk time, + all the regular features.

 

I finally dumped them and moved to Wind Mobile (no contract) where I have been paying $46.50/month for unlimited everything (data is throttled after 6GB) the last 2 years and as a result of my lower bills, I can now afford to outright buy a new phone every year and still have enough left over for a couple of fine dining experiences. 

 

I run my own business and I have not had any issues with my calls either (at least while in the city) and I've been quite happy with it.  I think lots of people buy into the FUD that the big carriers spread and they end up locking themselves into terrible contracts.  I don't think I can ever go back to that as it seems like I would be throwing my money away.

"But my iPhone only cost me $199 - what a great deal!" /s

It's only true in a very restricted sense; if the cell companies sold SMS services independently on 2-way pagers, they would have to charge for it. But their added cost to the carrier compared to a voice subscription is virtually nil, in other words, SMS are pure profit for a telco, just like charging extra for call waiting, caller ID and 3-way calling.

Sure when you have many iPhones. I pay 160 a month for 5 iPhones. On att.

 

Nothing said they were spending $200 for an individual plan.

If they are spending $200, they very likely have more than one phone on the plan.

How can people pay over $200 a month for their carrier, lol, it is so last century pricing...

 

Bingo!  We have 4 iPhones on our ATT shared plan. $230 a month. It would be around $100 for just one phone though. We also have to have the $30 a month unlimited messaging for my wife and my daughter. They account for nearly 10,000 texts per month.

So true. I don't spend that much.

 

I pay $45 per month.  Taxes in.  Unlimited calling in Canada/USA, unlimited global texting, unlimited data, voicemail, caller ID.  Cheap LD to the world.  And when I travel to any other Wind zone (like visiting gf in Ottawa or cousin in Vancouver), I don't get dinged with BS LD charges for incoming calls.

 

Wind.

 

This is exactly why I won't get an iPhone.  No phone is ever worth passing up the plan I have.  It's so liberating to just use my phone and never, ever worry about how much I have used it.  Daytime minutes?  What a pain.  Have to keep staring at the clock before you make a long call.  Been there.  Done that.  Never again.  Heck, my entire extended family has switched to Wind.  Even split between Android and Blackberry (hard keyboard fans).  There's only one cousin stuck with an iPhone on Rogers.  Pays as much as you do.  Doesn't have data.  I don't see the point, but he's more of an Apple nut than I'll ever be.

 

I hope someday the iPhone ends up on Wind.  It's the perfect network for smartphone users who actually intend to use their phone.  Till then, I'm quite happy using Android (getting my Apple fix through Mac and iPad) and paying half of what most iPhone users pay.  $50?  You are exceptional.  Most iPhone users I know pay anywhere from 40-60% more than that.  Rogers has an average revenue per use (ARPU), just under $60. Ditto for the other two.  Wind's ARPU is ~$30. 

 

So if you're averaging $50 on one of the big 3, you are below average.  I'll bet that they'll be far stingier with you come upgrade time.

 

Irrelevant to the discussion at hand.

 

Legacies plan are great.  Fewer and fewer people have them though.

 

And these high bills are a threat to all smartphone makers, but Apple in particular.  Apple is getting more and more synonymous with high priced plans and high priced carriers.  And that's of course, because Apple likes carriers that can pay high subsidies.

 

What happens when users start balking at high monthly bills?  A real concern by the way, especially if more carriers go the way of T-Mobile USA and start making the cost of the handset entirely transparent to the users.  Now users will know exactly how much more the iPhone costs over the S3 (aside from the same $199 they pay in the store).  And they'll be asking if it is worthwhile.

 

Carriers milking customers for so long, is going to hurt Apple in the long run.

 

 

Isn't the price for an unlocked 16GB Galaxy S3 about the same as an unlocked 16GB iPhone 5?  Or am I missing your point?

It is a little less for the S3:
$570 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16875176350


iPhone 16GB unlocked from Apple is $650.
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iphone5 (choose a color, then 16GB)

What is a wind zone???

And they'll find out it is.

Even if the cheaper customers don't, it will just make the iPhone keep its elite status instead of becoming everyone's phone, allowing Apple to sell it at higher prices than the razor thin margin prices of the competition.

I was in a Verizon store the other day trying to resolve an issue with a SIM card, and while I waited for the manager to be no help whatsoever, I overheard him telling out-and-out lies to a woman there to buy an iPhone 4S, trying to talk her into a Droid phone instead.  On my way out, I mentioned to the woman that she might want to ask him how much more money he makes selling her a Droid over an iPhone. 

 

Those places are sleazier than a used car dealership.

US customers are on "expensive data plans" because US carriers gouge them, and the US government lets them. I pay US$50 for unlimited everything.