Carriers Blame the iPhone For Data Caps and Increased Upgrade Fees

Posted by samzenpus on Monday August 6, 2012 @05:25AM from the not-our-fault dept.

zacharye writes "Bruised mobile carriers such as AT&T and Verizon are 'fighting back' against Apple's iPhone, despite the fact that the device has helped them eke out consistently higher average revenue per wireless subscribers since its launch. To hear the carriers tell it, the iPhone is a major inhibitor to their profits as last year they were 'only' generating wireless service profit margins in the 38% to 42% range. But ever since these beleaguered companies started 'fighting back' by implementing data caps, increasing fees for device upgrades and implementing longer waiting periods before users can switch devices, they’ve seen their wireless service profit margins surge. AT&T reported a 45% margin in Q2 2012 and Verizon reported a record-high 49% margin."

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Re:Victims of their own greed by Anonymous Coward · 2012-08-06 05:32 · Score: 5, Interesting

Which is why I will never upgrade and lose my unlimited data, and will try my hardest to go over the 2GB "recommended" usage every month. And since I'm on Verizon and they now need to remove the $20 per month tethering charge I will be tethering everything. For everyone saying I'm only hurting the other users, Verizon needs to upgrade their systems instead of claiming 50% profits, invest that in your damn infrastructure.