[101876] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: An Attempt at Economically Rational Pricing: Time Warner Trial
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Patrick W. Gilmore)
Sun Jan 20 04:29:39 2008
Cc: "Patrick W. Gilmore" <patrick@ianai.net>
From: "Patrick W. Gilmore" <patrick@ianai.net>
To: nanog@merit.edu
In-Reply-To: <200801191637.m0JGbtHn019407@aurora.sol.net>
Date: Sat, 19 Jan 2008 22:45:54 -0500
Errors-To: owner-nanog@merit.edu
On Jan 19, 2008, at 11:37 AM, Joe Greco wrote:
> Mikael Abrahamsson writes:
>> Customers want control, that's why the prepaid mobile phone where
>> you get
>> an "account" you have to prepay into, are so popular in some
>> markets. It
>> also enables people who perhaps otherwise would not be eligable
>> because of
>> bad credit, to get these kind of services.
>
> However, if you look, all the prepaid plans that I've seen look
> suspiciously
> like predatory pricing. The price per minute is substantially
> higher than
> an equivalent minute on a conventional plan. Picking on AT&T, for a
> minute,
> here, look at their monthly GoPhone prepaid plan, $39.99/300
> anytime, vs
> $39.99/450 minutes for the normal. If anything, the phone company
> is not
> extending you any credit, and has actually collected your cash in
> advance,
> so the prepaid minutes ought to be /cheaper/.
I disagree. Ever heard of volume discounts?
Picking on at&t again, a typical iPhone user signs up for 24 months @ ~
$100/month, _after_ a credit check to prove they are good for it or
plunking down a hefty deposit.
Compare that $2.4 kilo-bux to the $40-one-time payment by a pre-paid
user. Or, to be more far, how about $960 ($40/month for voice only)
compared to $40 one-time?
Hell yes I expect more minutes per dollar on my long-term contract.
Hrmm, wonder if someone will offer pay-as-you-go broadband @ $XXX (or
$0.XXX) per gigabyte?
--
TTFN,
patrick
