<p>Heh, don't get me wrong, lawfer... I never said I disagreed with the inevitability of data plans being king - I'm a huge proponent of ubiquitous high speed data connections everywhere, and regularly use messenger services and voip for mobile communication. I just found it rather odd that the CEO of a company that acts like data plans are either an inconvenience or a cash cow (depending on the day) is the one heralding the coming voice-pocalypse. They have been regularly beating down the consumers with data caps, tiers, and relative increases in data costs... Yet expect the world to flock to those same abused plans. Just came across as a bit ironic, to me. A bit like constantly beating someone with a stick, yet expecting them to continue to cower at your feet rather than run away.
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And I never said you explicitly said you disagree with the inevitability of data becoming a core service plan fro future devices. I seem to have said that, your comment expressing disbelief regarding AT&T's CEO's prediction, absolutely disregards the very reasoning you find both inevitable and plausible (one that AT&T's CEO also shares): the inevitability of data becoming an ubiquitous service plan.
Thanks for agreeing with my argument.
P.S. That analogy is not proximate to the context. What you say would be accurate if, in your analogy, you'd come specifically to me knowing I have a stick in my hand, and willing to take a beating.
No one forces the terms on people. This is actually a good segue to show you a misconception:
Brilliant! Force customers who just want basic voice service to get into a unSmart phone with a outrageously over priced data plan. Not only is it not needed but these wireless carriers keep adding more and more users onto it.
People go <I>to</I> AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, etc. Not the other way around. When you walk out of a store, you know precisely what you are getting yourself into. Not only is what they are supposed to do, but what they are legally bound to do.
Another reason why his point is moot, is because you can change your device within 30 days for AT&T, and 14 days for the rest of carriers. That means no one bought a phone they didn't need and never returned if they didn't like, or is in a plan they cannot afford that they can't change.
Ultimate point being is, AT&T or any other carriers are beating nobody with a stick. The analogy would make sense if I signed up a contract to pay $30 of data, but AT&T upped that up $5 every month until the end of the contract, and still expected me to pay and not go with a competitor. That's not the case not only because even if AT&T changes their tiers, YOUR plan doesn't change (it's called a contract for a reason; it works both ways), but because that would be illegal.
Again, I'm not defending anyone. We can agree data could certainly be cheaper. But I find calling AT&T and the other carriers "greedy jerks" for telling customer A they are going to pay X amount, and customer A <I>agreeing</I> to pay X amount for a 2 years as rather childish. Now whether X amount could be lower, for sure, but that's another topic.
