COMMENTARY | Almost across the board I think customers would say “yes” to the question of whether they are paying too much for their mobile phone service.
With that, AT&T has been hammered this week for raising its rates $5 per month across the board for new mobile customers. On the plus side, customers will receive more data in their plans. Customers who want the minimum plan will get 300 megabytes of data for $20.
AT&T says it will put the additional money to good use. For years, Dallas-based AT&T has upgrading its infrastructure. AT&T customers now get some of the fastest service available. AT&T also says it needs additional spectrum to meet increasing demand. Many think this rate increase is in response to AT&T’s failed attempt to buy T-Mobile. It might be, but spectrum is still needed.
AT&T struggled for years when it became the only U.S. carrier of Apple’s iPhone. Service was spotty in some locales and dropped calls were frequent. But the carrier saw where the industry was heading and took the profits and plowed them back into preparing for the future.
AT&T says as much in a statement to customers. “We think it made sense to give customers more data upfront and to give them more value,” a company spokesman said. “Data usage continues to increase.”
Industry expert Robert Cross says this may make current AT&T customers think twice before leaving for another carrier. “Customers (could be) worried that they’ll lose their unlimited plans [by switching to] another carrier,” Cross said.
I’m actually paying less right now than I did nearly 20 years ago when I had a phone mounted in my car. And we do a lot more now with our phones than we ever did in the past. At the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, many companies were showing off applications for our smartphones that could control various devices in our homes. That was always something we thought about as we looked into the future.
As we start migrating to these apps, we will start using more and more data.
In short, AT&T is raising rates to potentially millions of customers and that is usually not a good thing. But AT&T is actually doing some forward thinking and preparing customers for the future. Rates will even out as the competition keeps heating up. Smartphones really are our future, and the future is now.
Rick Limpert covers sports, technology and events. He can be followed on Twitter at @RickRoswell.