In the recent AT&T filing with the FCC a sentence caught my attention
“In particular, both parties required assurances that the revenues from the AT&T voice plans available to iPhone customers would not be reduced by enabling VoIP calling functionality on the iPhone.”
I said wait a minute – what about data plan revenue? I mean you could not make a VoIP call without a data plan (which is $ 30 or higher a month on an iPhone in addition to a voice plan).
No mention of that anywhere.
But why is that surprising in an industry which loves to double-dip?
- Mobile voice plans meter both the caller and the receiver - outside the US many plans do not
- Ditto with text messages – with eyes on charging the source application in addition to monthly plans consumers pay for
- Verizon charges you a base fee for a land-line – but if you don’t make any long-distance calls they bill you a “shortfall” charge. No kidding.
- As this consumer comments – pay twice for one Verizon FiOS ONT
- 3G not available where you are even though we sold you a national plan? Sign up for our additional wi-fi hotspot plan (for iPhone AT&T includes the hotspot in the data plan)
- You want to use your PDA as a modem? Sure, that will be extra even though you will now download less onto your PDA – and you have an unlimited data plan
- AT&T allows you to rollover minutes on your mobile plan, Nice feature their acquisition of Cingular continued. But if you reduce your monthly minutes to take advantage of that backlog of rollover minutes, you lose a big chunk of that inventory of minutes. How naive of you to believe you had “earned” those minutes
- Hotspot plans - you sign up with a big carrier like T-Mobile and find they have patchy coverage even in German speaking Europe. Pay them a plan fee, and pay hotels and other carriers as you go along. Let everyone enjoy the double-dip party,
- Not just the telcos – governments have learned to pile on. Take a look at the fees and taxes in your bill each month.
Airlines and banks get lots of bad press for nickel and diming customers with fees. I would say they are amateurs compared to telcos.
