Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile introduce flat-rate plans

Verizon Wireless was quickly followed by AT&T and T-Mobile - three of the four largest wireless phone companies - announcing the new flat-rate plans, which cost about $100 a month. All three companies had their new plans available by the end of last week. Sprint, the fourth of the large phone companies, said it is testing a flat-rate plan.

[...] Verizon said. The basic plan costs $99 per month and covers domestic voice calls and some Internet use. For an additional $20 a month, customers can add text messaging. And for a total of $139 per month, video and mobile e-mail are added. AT&T’s plans are similar to Verizon’s and includes Apple’s iPhone.

It's still high, but if I look at my spending, it would already be worth the buck. In comparison:

Orange Swiss ARPU continued to drop from EUR 189 in the fourth quarter of 2006 via EUR 186 in the third quarter of 2007 to EUR 184 in the fourth quarter. The non-voice part of the total revenues amounted to 19.2 percent at the end of 2007, compared with 18.5 percent at the end of 2006.

61 Euro/month = $90/month. So if you target the heavy mobile phone users, the Verizon's $99 per month are certainly defendable.

And how much did the first flat-rates cost for internet? It was similarly high in the beginning. So there is much room for improvement - prices can only go down;)


See also:
The Switzerland Telecommunications Report 2008 where Orange has an ARPU of Euro 55 and Swisscom of little more then Euro 40.