Ramblings

Can anyone explain to me how all these cell phone companies justify all their ridiculous rates? (mainly focusing on AT&T, because it’s the only one I can speak for)

Look at any regular internet providers rates for households.

20 dollars for 1 MBPS and 30 for 5 MBPS. Wireless 3g internet is some where in between these two speeds, and AT&T charges 30 dollars a month for it. Seems fair enough, right? But think about it. They also charge you not only for your “data”, but for you talking too. And it doesn’t stop there. You have your texting plan, and all the huge fees they slap on you if you dare call, text, or use the internet away from where you live.

It makes sense that they charge you a data plan and a voice plan, but that’s where the nonsense starts to come in. Upwards of 70-90 dollars for a voice plan? How can they justify that? I’m no expert in how all this phone technology works, but if you compare the price to land lines, they only cost about 30 dollars a month. So all in all, an iPhone should only logistically run about 60 a month (Long distance included) right?

Lets just move on to texting. Each SMS text is limited to 160 characters, which is roughly 160 bytes. Now most phone companies depending on your plan will charge 10 to 30 cents for every text message you send (whether it be because you went over the limit or just don’t have a plan at all). How the hell can they possible justify charging you 10 to 30 cents for sending 160 character through their network? It makes no sense. Even more ridiculous is how you get charged for texts going both ways. Reply to 5 of your friends texts at 10 cents each and you already owe AT&T a dollar.

Now I know part of the whole scheme of it is that the plans and ridiculous fees are supposed to be there to cover the cost of your contracted phone that you get for a subsidized price, but really even that is nonsensical (Just see the chart below). You can’t even walk into an ATT store without looking at every single phone on display and seeing:

*Requires purchase of $30/mo data plan.

The whole thing that’s spurring me to even write this is that I heard AT&T is planning to add tethering for the iPhone, which, if you don’t know, allows you to transfer your phones 3G internet to your laptop or other devices so that they too can use it where they don’t receive Wi-Fi. So my logical thought process is: “Well, I’m paying them 30 dollars a month to use their internet, so tethering should be the same deal. I’m still using that same internet at the same rate, so it should be a nice free addition”. Right? Nope. Should have known that AT&T would try to milk more money out of its customers when it can. Data tethering is rumored to be an additional 30 dollars a month. Seriously? *&^% off, I’m already paying you 30 dollars a month to use your internet, now you want me to double that so I can “use” what I should be getting in the first place? Just look at your typical phone bill for ONE phone with data plan.

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