On Thu, 21 Feb 2008 08:21:15 -0800, SMS <scharf.steven@geemail.com>
wrote in <47bda447$0$36412$742ec2ed@news.sonic.net>:

>Todd Allcock wrote:
>
>> Which I've never understood (from any cell company- not just Verizon.)
>> Most have billing systems advanced enough to handle myriads of
>> "grandfathered" rate plans. Wouldn't it be cheaper to just grandfather, say,
>> a $0.10 or $0.15 texting charge until the end of a contract, rather than
>> let people walk out of a $50/month plan over a lousy nickel increase?
>
>Yes, but they know that few people will take advantage of the escape
>clause. They must have calculated that the increased revenue from the
>higher rates more than offsets the lost subscribers.

More to the point, they do their best not to alert people to the fact by
burying that fact in dense and confusing legalese. Sadly, the
Republican FTC doesn't seem to think there's anything wrong with that,
and most of the state PUCs aren't up to the task.

>> I'm sure it was simply Verizon greed, but as a former cellular dealer I'd
>> like to pretend it was at least partly out of respect for their dealer
>> base. AT&T is essentially paying Apple the "dealer residuals" on each
>> iPhone contract, and locking their entire dealer network out of a hot-
>> selling phone possibly to prevent "double-dipping" of residuals.
>
>I know that AT&T's dealers are very upset about not being able to sell
>the iPhone,

You know that how? How many have you talked to? Or is this something
else that you think must be true so you say it's true?

>however I'd speculate that it was the revenue sharing and
>not the residuals that caused Verizon to pass on the iPhone.

Verizon actually lost out to AT&T.

>> Agreed, but it was a spike nonetheless. Frankly, for all the noise about
>> the JesusPhone, all of the other carriers (except Sprint) are doing well in
>> net adds- at last year's level or above, so the iPhone exclusivity isn't
>> exactly crippling the competition.
>
>True, I originally thought that the iPhone would enable AT&T to overtake
>Verizon in new retail additions, but in fact Verizon continues to widen
>its lead. ...

There is no such "lead" without cooking the books. AT&T is the largest
carrier in the USA.

--
Best regards,
John Navas <http:/navasgroup.com>

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