“Cell Phone Networks Raising Rates” |
| Cell Phone Networks Raising Rates Posted: 22 Jan 2011 10:46 AM PST POSTED: 7:11 pm MST January 21, 2011 UPDATED: 11:29 am MST January 22, 2011 PHOENIX -- If you own a cell phone, get ready to pay a little more for service.Wireless carriers are quietly raising their prices.So far this month, three of the four major networks have either raised their rates or dropped discount deals.Kirt Tyson and Liz Kim use their cell phones all the time to make calls, send text messages, even browse the Internet.Right now, the Valley medical students pay about $200 a month for an all-data family plan,"It seems like everything is rising so much already," said Tyson. "Gas is high and cell phone prices are already high.""I thought as technology gets better and more advanced, they'd find ways to bring costs down instead of going up," Kim said.AT&T is stopping its discount program for renewing customers, which means no more huge savings on new phones.The activation fee for adding a new line is going up $10, and AT&T has eliminated its unlimited data plan.Sprint will increase the price of its smartphone plans by $10 a month.However, current Sprint customers will not have to pay the higher rate.Verizon is also eliminating its discount program for renewing customers.No price plan has been announced for the soon-to-be released iPhone 4; however, consumer experts said the plan could be more expensive than other Verizon smartphones.CBS-5 technology expert Bryan Shiele said the mobile phone price hike is designed to offset wireless companies' costs for delivering faster speeds, more apps and mobile video.It's an added expense that is simply being passed on to customers, according to Schiele."They're offering more services, so with data everywhere and expadning network coverage, we're getting a lot more," said Schiele. "but we're not getting it for free."Wireless companies claim all the new technology and improvements is costing the industry about $50 billion a year.Brian Dale of Scottsdale said he won't mind paying more on his cell phone bill, just so long as there is an improvement in service."Probably one out of every four calls drops for me," said Dale. "If service improves, it's for the common good. We'll see."So far, T-Mobile is the only holdout in terms of rising costs or cutting perks. Copyright 2011 by KPHO.com. All rights reserved. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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