
Carriers blame the iPhone for data caps and increased upgrade fees - zacharye
http://www.bgr.com/2012/08/06/iphone-data-caps-upgrade-fees-att-verizon/
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mgkimsal
"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."

It would seem pretty simple then - stop carrying and supporting the iPhone,
and they would have higher profit margins. This is basic math. If they want
higher profit margins, drop iPhone.

Wait... what? They want higher profit margins _and_ higher revenues? Perhaps
those days are slipping away, and they may have to deal with higher revenues
and 'only' 20% profit margins.

Uh oh - what if that happens? We'll stop seeing all the innovations from
carriers we've seen over the past 20 years like...

Oh yeah, we haven't really seen any. SMS spam? That's been the only change in
my wireless life I can directly attribute to wireless carriers, other than
wireless service itself. Is there anything else I'm missing?

~~~
untog
_We'll stop seeing all the innovations from carriers we've seen over the past
20 years like... Oh yeah, we haven't really seen any._

I don't want to be in the position of defending the cellphone networks too
much, but things like 3G and LTE upgrades to cell towers aren't easy or free.
Neither were the 4G auctions.

~~~
hifoo
Profit is calculated after capital purchases are taken into account. The
profit margins should include the amortized costs of the tower upgrades.

~~~
untog
Sure, but the OP was suggesting that the networks haven't innovated. I'd say
LTE is an innovation.

~~~
jpxxx
Not to be sour, but an innovation in what? The first cellular network was a
radio tower with a backhaul supporting handsets. LTE is a radio tower with a
backhaul supporting handsets.

~~~
glhaynes
What sort of innovation are you looking for?

Your analogy could just as well be used like: the first food preparation was
mixing together ingredients, sometimes with heat. Modern cooking is mixing
together ingredients, sometimes with heat.

I don't particularly love my carrier, but I have a choice of several and they
bring me mostly-available mostly-quite-high-speed service for a small fraction
of my paycheck. It would've blown me away 20 years ago to have such service on
a wired connection.

~~~
jpxxx
That's my point, although I'm not sure my argument is illuminating much. Why
do they request applause for selling what is essentially an unchanging
utility? Data goes to and from the handset.

Lower latency, cheaper, wider range, higher volume, diffserved, sorted,
tabulated, billed, whatever, sure: if you define implementation improvements
as "innovations" then the carriers are innovating. But the thing the customer
consumes is the same as the first day they lit up the first network: timely
data to a computationally-capable handset.

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benologist
More BGR spam.

[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000087239639044354550457756...](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443545504577567283530764706.html)

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SchizoDuckie
This problem will solve itself (at least in europe) now that 'share your
broadband and you can use other people's shared broadband connection' schemes
are popping up everywhere.

The telco's have had a monopoly position for too long. The consumer does _not_
care if his call is routed over the internet, skype, broadband or 3g, he just
wants his connection, and wants it cheap.

Data limits and increased prices are not the way to solve this, evolving the
infrastructure is.

And don't tell me they need to make huge investments. They've got a vastly
automated infrastructure and millions of customers that they're leeching off
monthly.

~~~
jiggy2011
My router has built in software to participate in these broadband sharing
schemes but frankly they scare the shit out of me, so I don't touch them.

Firstly , I'd be amazed if the TOS for my from most domestic ISPs actually
allow you to "resell" your connection in such a way.

Secondly what happens if somebody uses your connection for nefarious deeds,
how can you prove it wasn't you?

~~~
mmoche
How can they prove it WAS you? This is why it makes sense to avoid locking
down a connection. If someone breaks in and does something illegal, you'll
have a much tougher time proving it wasn't you than with a wide-open network.

~~~
freehunter
With that you have to balance the threat to your network. There are many
widely-supported encryption standards that are incredibly hard to break, hard
enough that no one will reasonably try. However if you leave it wide open,
you're not only allowing your access to be used by everyone for everything,
you're also allowing them free access to every device on your network.

If you're in a densely populated area, someone could spend the time to break
your encryption from their own home. But if they're doing that, they're going
to be doing worse once you let them in. Open wifi will only compound your
issues. If you're not within range of your neighbors, you'll probably notice
someone sitting outside for long enough (weeks/months/years) to break your
encryption. Long enough to call the police.

Basically, if you're worried about a possible legal case involving the use of
your network and your defense strategy is to open your network, you might be
in much more immediate trouble by allowing people in. You'd still be on the
hook for the activities on your network, but now your bank account has been
drained by the guys who did nothing more than drive by your house with a
laptop so now you don't have the money for a legal defense.

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thehigherlife
It is so frustrating that these carriers continue to have such a strong hold
on customers. They are true monopolies and their desire to have their bottom
lines raised is obviously more important than any type of innovation on the
technology front. Eventually I think we'll see the same breakup/restrictions
of these large carriers in the same way AT&T's land lines were done.

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jfoutz
37 million phones in Q1. $30/month for data. Seems like the billion dollars a
month could help offset some of those expenses.

