Friday, June 22, 2018

“Never worry about data charges on your bill again”


These are Verizon’s words that are echoed by the other three wireless carriers in advertising the benefit of unlimited data plans.  The carriers play to our revealed preference for certainty in what we are going to pay over how much we pay.   Is this good for the carriers?  Absolutely!  They want us buying the service with the highest margin on a recurring basis, bundling the service with other products they offer, and sticking with them because we find it too difficult to switch.  It has worked! 

So, how do you get someone to switch or get them as a new subscriber?  You up the ante!

Sprint and T-Mobile, the pending merger partners, focus a lot on price.  But, they recently added to their plans paid subscriptions to Hulu and Netflix, respectively.  Binge on! 

AT&T is going all out to keep and attract subscribers.  And, why not!   Coming on the heels of their successful win in the antitrust case to buy Time Warner, AT&T is offering subscribers HBO for life and $15 off DirecTV Now/DirecTV.  (Critics of the vertical merger were concerned about this behavior!)

How about Verizon?   Maybe because it has “the most reliable network”, Verizon has the highest-priced plans and only offers Go90 as a “free” add-on.  In response to its rival’s actions, Verizon must do something more or else it may see an increase in churn, enough to be painful.

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