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Wireless Providers Competing More Than Ever

posted by mattie_p on Thursday February 20 2014, @09:36PM   Printer-friendly
from the but-think-of-the-stockholders dept.

siliconwafer writes:

"Competition among wireless providers could hurt profits in the wireless industry, according to a report by Reuters. T-Mobile's aggressive price structure, abandonment of contracts, and termination-fee payments have put downward pressure on mobile costs for consumers, and Wall Street analysts are forecasting a reduction in profits in the wireless sector as a result. AT&T in particular is showing signs of stress. While this may be bad news for the wireless industry, it's good news for consumers."

 
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  • (Score: 1) by thoughtlover on Tuesday February 25 2014, @06:04PM

    by thoughtlover (3247) on Tuesday February 25 2014, @06:04PM (#6967) Journal

    But back to the main point, yeah, on the MVNO front, there is a lot of great competition out there.

    I agree that many of the carriers' woes are from leasing out their lines while the MVNOs make out like bandits --offering sub-par connectivity for one-half to one-third the price of the Big-3's options, and all without a contract --no, I don't consider Sprint a competitor in the market, anymore.

    How many poor people can get a cellphone contract via AT&T/T-Mo/Verizon that have no or bad credit? None. But they can get one (with ridiculous reconnection fees for late payment) for next-to-nothing via Cricket or StraightTalk (which is Wal-mart, IIRC). You can even get a nicer, used smartphone on Craigslist and plug a StraighTalk SIM in it for less than $50/mo for 'unlimited' talk, SMS, and data --MMS requires a jailbreak to point to the proper proxy; yet another way they keep down their overall network usage.

    It's the MVNOs aggressive pricing models, combined by taking the homeless masses that wanted a cellphone and internet connection (often the only way for poorer segments of the population to do so) that threatened to undermine the profitability of the Big-3.

    New 'a la carte' models that are completely flexible, like Ting, can provide more angst for those old giants... giants, of whom, are destined to fall because of not adapting fast enough to changing tech.