Quote:
Originally Posted by DuckieTigger
I think it is interesting that the prices were lower at first. What happened to that?
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Demand and technology. I equate it to what's happened in the telephone industry, speaking as guy who spent his career there. While hardwire data was always at basically a premium price, as could be seen by T1 costs, and then lowered with cable/fiber-to-the-curb prices, CELLULAR data was considered not a part of the market. Remember when you had to pay an arm and a leg for minutes? When you would make agreements for peak vs offpeak hours and tell folks to only call you off-peak because then the cost was lower or free? And at the same time you had an unlimited data contract for a measly 10 to 20 bucks, data that you would hardly ever use.
Fast forward to today. Companies are now trying to do away with unlimited data and charging as much as 100 bucks for TWO GBS of data. Folks are in an uproar, but since the communications industry in the US is regulated for the most part, then a finite number of companies hold all the keys and get to charge what they feel like including and giving the shaft to net neutrality all the while providing service that is far behind parts of Europe, Korea, Japan et al. In a comparison to Japan that has been deregulated since 1999, we are so far behind that it's atrocious. Example, hardwired you could get 160 mbs in Japan for about $60 as of 2009. 150 down on FIOS is currently $129 in the US.