Michael Turk points out that AT&T's new plans do increase prices, but also
increase the corresponding caps, with the net effect of decreasing per byte
costs.
That's true, but consider the larger picture: The telco's have consistently
justified the caps by saying that almost all their customers will stay under
them. If almost everyone stayed under 2GB yesterday, tomorrow they will be
paying more and still likely staying under them - thus paying more for the same
thing.
Beyond that, if we're going to consider per byte costs - how do you justify the
much higher per byte costs if you go over the cap? Even if the going over the
cap just bought you an additional "unit" the same size as your base - i.e., if
you 300MB plus 1 byte on your new 300MB plan, you were automatically signed up
for another 300MB at $20 - the net effect would be a very high, in fact
*increased* - per byte cost for going over (unless you come close to using up
the second block as well). Not that this is the way the Telco's do it anyway.
In a competitive market, the Telco's should be free to set their prices any way
they like. If they set their prices in a way that loses them customers, well,
that's what they deserve. Any explanations of their prices - in any market -
are just part of the marketing, and should be ignored as the non-arguments they
are. What matters is the cost vs. the benefit to the consumer.
The real world of data plans isn't quite so simple, since it's close to a
duopoly in most of the country, and an effective monopoly in some places.
That's what justifies arguments about fairness and reasonableness: We as the
people of the US have given out licenses to spectrum with the effect of
limiting competition in the marketplace, so we do have a right to speak. And
*my* comment on AT&T's changes is: The net effect, however it's portrayed, is
that AT&T subscribers will pay more, whether they want to use more or not.
-- Jerry
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