Verizon Wireless and AT&T announced today that they’d be dropping prices on their unlimited individual and family talk plans to $70 and $150 respectively. While this is a long time in coming, the fact is that their services are still over-priced. That’s right. If meager performing providers like T-Mobile and tiny Cricket Wireless can provide unlimited talk and text messaging for around $40 then you’ve got to agree that the giants do well by their customers.
It’s correct to say that the smaller competitors have a lot less over-head and can therefore assume the smaller profit margins. Even so, at a time when unemployment sits above 10% every wireless service provider is likely to have fewer employees to burden profitability. With MBA managers driving cost cutting / profit driving measures with every business on the planet, its safe to assume either Verizon or AT&T can afford to drive costs lower still.
So what’s the point of the token move? Maybe to quiet the masses. Consumers need a champion like Ralph Nader to drive down prices. Whatever happened to Ralph anyway? The hero of American consumerism got into politics and didn’t look back. Too bad for America and too bad for our wallets.
Cellular phone customers pay too much for the service. As land-line telephony goes into the history books, we should demand more. How many more services can they possibly provide? TV’s covered. Internet as well. Texting and voice are standard pieces of the package.
Here’s a message to AT&T and Verizon- Give us a real price war, not a token move.
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