Analyst: Enjoy your unlimited iPhone data plans while they last

16 years ago

“In a research note this morning, Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi considers the issues the iPhone has created for AT&T and other carriers. He writes that the iPhone has proven to be a mixed blessing for AT&T and other carriers, accelerating adoption of wireless data plans, but also triggering severe network performance degradation, customer dissatisfaction, higher capital spending and lower return on invested capital,” Eric Savitz reports for Barron’s.

“Sacconaghi estimates that the average iPhone users consumes 5x-7x as much monthly bandwidth as an average wireless voice subscriber, and more than 2x the amount used by the average 3G smartphone user. He says the average iPhone user consumes 250-350 MB/month including voice, which is above the 200-250 MB entry level data plans Verizon and AT&T offer,” Savitz reports. “He notes that some heavy users gobble 1-5 GB a month; he calculates that some of the heaviest users effectively have a net present value to the carriers of zero.”

Savitz reports, “In Sacconaghi’s view, the situation eventually will trigger usage-based pricing in the U.S.”