http://online.wsj.com/article/APea3e47fee6ae43959cb16a3b1e5f07fb.html

I wonder how long before Sprint will follow suit?

 

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Sprint recently started doing the slow down after two gigs, bit.

Is this proof that free market capitalism is broken?
Aren't companies supposed to stop doing practices everyone hates and not expand hated policies out to the competitors in an attempt to remove our choices?

 

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I remember about 15 years ago when I sold cell phones and "digital" phones/plans were brand new. One of the selling points we were encouraged to push was the fact that the bandwidth these phones used was such a tiny fraction of what the analogs used that they would open the door for all kinds of cool things (which they did) and lead to nearly unlimited bandwidth (which was obviously false). Now the phone companies are crying that they're running out of bandwidth.

 

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Well, there are basically 4 players in the market now. There would only be 3 if the T-Mobile/AT&T merger had been allowed to happen. I'm actually not surprised at all to see less and less consumer choice in this industry.

 

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The reality is that very very few people with unlimited data plans are actually using more than they would be on one of the new limited plans. Phone companies are just getting savvy to the fact that they can create a new billing price category from the few folks who use large amounts of bandwidth and put everyone else back onto a limited plan (which they will probably not use all of either) for the same money.

 

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you cant tell me these assholes dont collude on their pricing

 

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AT&T was recently not only blocked from purchasing T-Mobile, but they were also blocked from purchasing more digital spectrum (for now, just a temp hold) that became available due to the digital TV switchover.

They have plenty of available spectrum for the foreseeable (finding of the court) and Sprint sued claiming they were trying to grab all the available spectrum and sit on it, thus keeping other companies from expanding their services and making it impossible for any new companies to come into existence.

AT&T is appealing the ruling and claiming they need all that spectrum, even though they aren't using 80% of what they already own the rights to.

This is just a push from them to reinforce their stupid claim. Hope it bites them in the ass. I wouldn't look for Sprint to follow their lead...except Sprint is the worst managed company in history, so they might just do it even though it hurts them in the long run....and what corporation gives a damn about the long run these days? Not like the board wont have taken their money and run long before then.

Think they learned this tactic from the oil companies...

 

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