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AT&T CEO voices regret over iPhone unlimited data model

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Re: AT&T CEO voices regret over iPhone unlimited data model

#21

Post by farmdawgnation »

dspickes wrote: post #7

I disagree with his assessment. He only has to "invest capital" for each megabyte you download insofar as he merely has to maintain his current network. An individual user has a hardware limit on the amount of bandwidth they can consume, be it imposed by the network or the consuming device. "Each additional megabyte" consumes no more or less bandwidth than the megabyte before it nor the megabyte after it. He has the…

I suspect their ability to get away with it has an inverse correlation to their customer's ability to understand what's going on. There's probably a little bit of the execs having no idea what's going on as well. (They don't strike me as the types who would easily understand the difference you pointed out.)

As customers become more knowledgable about what's going on, and why it makes no sense - AT&T et al will either be required to change their business model or someone will eat their lunch.

I keep hoping the same thing will happen with the major cable companies as well. Die, Comcast, die.

Re: AT&T CEO voices regret over iPhone unlimited data model

#22

Post by antidoh »

tnash wrote: post #11

In the end AT&T and the other carriers don't want to be "dumb pipes", but that's what consumers want. Can you imagine the same applied to water? "I'm sorry sir, but we know you used an unapproved toilet AND you went over your allotted shower minutes this month." We can only hope that it'll work out in our favor and they can stop preaching to us how we should use their bandwidth.

"We can only hope that it'll work out in our favor"

This is America. We'll have to catch up to South Korea first.

Re: AT&T CEO voices regret over iPhone unlimited data model

#23

Post by hcarvalhoalves »

This is like regreting modern agriculture because you could charge more from starving people if food was lacking. When given the option, the monopolies will always go after the "easy" model, which is of scarcity, instead of making money by just offering plain good service in the first place.

Re: AT&T CEO voices regret over iPhone unlimited data model

#24

Post by brettnak »

eaurouge wrote: post #18
chrisdroukas wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Despite SMS being a hack that costs carriers (essentially) nothing to send [1], the reality of this situation is that telcos will be/are quickly losing one of their largest profit points to services like iMessage. Real question: Where are they going to recover that profitability from? [1] http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2008/12/text-messages-c/

Where are they going to recover that profitability from? They won't. They'll eventually need to adapt to the reality of their business, which is to move data from one point to another. They'll get to decide how to monetize their dumb pipes but their current SMS business model won't last.

Another real question is this: Do people think the first of the major telcos to buckle down and actually do this will pull quite far ahead of the others?

Re: AT&T CEO voices regret over iPhone unlimited data model

#25

Post by shadesandcolour »

untog wrote: post #4

The iMessage thing is, IMO, the more interesting comment. Apple has effectively ripped a revenue stream away from the providers, and they can't do much about it apart from raise prices for other stuff. They're not alone, of course- BBM does the same thing. But they're all disjointed networks, which plays into the provider's hands right now. People still need text plans to contact people on other devices. I wonder if…

I doubt it. The beauty and the reason that iMessage and BBM took off is because it was built right into the phone. Those messages get treated as first class citizens while third-party applications are off somewhere else. When I get a text message and an iMessage I can read them in the same place which is a plus to me. If I'm jumping around in disjointed conversations, sometimes with the same people, through different apps I don't want to really use that service anymore.

Re: AT&T CEO voices regret over iPhone unlimited data model

#26

Post by wizzard »

chrisdroukas wrote: post #12
lusr wrote: post #6

"Apple iMessage is a classic example. If you're using iMessage, you're not using one of our messaging services, right?" It's hard to believe this is a real quote by such a senior executive. If the profitability of your business is so significantly based on a hack (SMS) that you stay awake at night worrying about it, and you didn't bother innovating by developing a real solution to the problem (pervasive real-time com…

Despite SMS being a hack that costs carriers (essentially) nothing to send [1], the reality of this situation is that telcos will be/are quickly losing one of their largest profit points to services like iMessage. Real question: Where are they going to recover that profitability from? [1] http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2008/12/text-messages-c/

I'm genuinely curious... why is AT&T losing so much money over iMessage? When iMessage came out I went to downgrade my SMS plan, and found you can no longer do so. It is unlimited SMS or no messaging. Not everyone I know owns an iPhone and $.20 per SMS adds up, so I am stuck paying for unlimited.

Re: AT&T CEO voices regret over iPhone unlimited data model

#27

Post by aleyan »

jamesaguilar wrote: post #8
untog wrote: post #4

The iMessage thing is, IMO, the more interesting comment. Apple has effectively ripped a revenue stream away from the providers, and they can't do much about it apart from raise prices for other stuff. They're not alone, of course- BBM does the same thing. But they're all disjointed networks, which plays into the provider's hands right now. People still need text plans to contact people on other devices. I wonder if…

Probably not. There have been dozens of challengers (Kik, Beluga, WhatsApp), no one has gathered the ubiquity or reliability of SMS. The one one I can conceive of hitting that goal is Facebook, and at the moment they don't seem to be trying too hard.

I am surprised Google Voice hasn't been mentioned as an alternative. It piggy backs on existing networks by allowing you to communicate with Google servers over your data plan, which forward your texts as SMS to their destinations.

I run it on my smartphone and use my Google Voice phone # exclusively. As a result I have been able to get rid of my SMS Verizon plan over a year ago. This is completely transparent to my contacts who have no idea that they are texting/calling a google voice number.

Re: AT&T CEO voices regret over iPhone unlimited data model

#28

Post by jamesaguilar »

MatthewPhillips wrote: post #14
jamesaguilar wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably not. There have been dozens of challengers (Kik, Beluga, WhatsApp), no one has gathered the ubiquity or reliability of SMS. The one one I can conceive of hitting that goal is Facebook, and at the moment they don't seem to be trying too hard.

Just another silo. You know what has the ubiquity of SMS? Email.

At least on my device, email's usability is not there. Nor is its delivery latency or immediacy on receipt.

Re: AT&T CEO voices regret over iPhone unlimited data model

#29

Post by untog »

aleyan wrote: post #27
jamesaguilar wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably not. There have been dozens of challengers (Kik, Beluga, WhatsApp), no one has gathered the ubiquity or reliability of SMS. The one one I can conceive of hitting that goal is Facebook, and at the moment they don't seem to be trying too hard.

I am surprised Google Voice hasn't been mentioned as an alternative. It piggy backs on existing networks by allowing you to communicate with Google servers over your data plan, which forward your texts as SMS to their destinations. I run it on my smartphone and use my Google Voice phone # exclusively. As a result I have been able to get rid of my SMS Verizon plan over a year ago. This is completely transparent to my…

Google Voice isn't available outside of the US. A huge difference.
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