iPhone News Updated

AT&T to Use Differential Pricing Strategy for iPhone Users

With only 3 percent of its Smartphone customers are contributing more than 40 percent of its wireless data traffic, AT&T is facing problems such as dropped connections and long waits for users trying to run programs on their devices.

This has forced AT&T to consider changing its existing flat $30 per month charges for iPhone users. However, with Apple launching new and bandwidth-intensive applications, the problem is expected to grow even worse. At present, AT&T is the exclusive U.S. carrier for Apple’s iPhone.

In order to curb the subscriber’s data usage, AT&T has decided to incentivize its customers by educating them about data usage by various applications. However, the other and more likely alternative that AT&T is going to focus on is DIFFERENTIAL PRICING for its customers. Under this, a customer would be billed not on monthly basis, but as per their usage. It would be just like how it charges its wireless data-card users.

Earlier this week, AT&T introduced a new service which allows an iPhone user to report network problems such as dropped calls, service quality, etc. So far, the problem has been concentrated only around New York and San Francisco, where a large number of AT&T subscribers are also iPhone users.

AT&T’s main competitor, Verizon Wireless, has already increased its pricing to squeeze out more revenue from its low-end customers. However, such a move could also result in AT&T scaring off some customers, and at the same time stifle innovation and development of the mobile Internet. AT&T seems to realize that as well, which is why the carrier is already upgrading its network and also trying for more spectrum allocation for its wireless- data services.

[Thanks: http://whitehatfirm.com]

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