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[sidsixseven]

Unfortunately you missed my point. When the TB is announced clearly they will announce data plans. Those plans most likely based on Verzion CFO Shamo's comments tiered data won't be until summer. This to me implied that whatever they announce for the TB will not be tiered therefore you would be better off.

That's not how I read the CFO's comments at all. It was pretty clear to me that the TB will announce with a Tiered data plan -- and that model (or something similar) will be more broadly rolled out to everyone else sometime in the summer.

The questions we still don't know are:

1. will the tiered model for the TB be for LTE only?
2. will the top tier still include an unlimited plan?
3. what will the price be?
4. will existing users on existing phones be grandfathered in when the new tiered model is announced?

Answers to those questions is pure speculation at this point. The only thing we do know for sure is that some form of Tiering will come with the TB.

The other two things the CFO said that I felt were important were:

• they feel existing smartphone users are willing to pay $30-50
• they want to entice non-smartphone users to convert by offering a entry-level data plan

IMO, we are going to see the first point addressed with the release of the TB. I fully expect the top-tier 4g plan to be around $45-$50 per phone. That is absolutely consistent with what AT&T has for the 4GB data plan.

The second point, entry-level tiering, is what I think we can expect to be rolled out sometime in the summer. Possibly around the time the 4g iPhone is released as a marketing tool to get new users for the 3g iPhone (which at that point will be discounted down to a $49 or $99 price point on new contract).

Idle speculation on my part, but that's what I personally read into the comments by the CFO.

 

[kodiak799]

Unfortunately you missed my point. When the TB is announced clearly they will announce data plans. Those plans most likely based on Verzion CFO Shamo's comments tiered data won't be until summer. This to me implied that whatever they announce for the TB will not be tiered therefore you would be better off.

But the Bionic was announced as being available Q2, which means it is slated to be out before they switch to tiered pricing plans mid-summer. Nor do I expect a change under the cover of darkness, at a minimum there will probably be plenty of leaks/rumors before VZW actually makes the switch. TBolt doesn't do it for me so I'm going to monitor the situation and hope the Bionic works out.

 

[kodiak799]

That's not how I read the CFO's comments at all. It was pretty clear to me that the TB will announce with a Tiered data plan -- and that model (or something similar) will be more broadly rolled out to everyone else sometime in the summer.

Ahhhhh, that does make sense. And obviously you probably won't be able to buy a TBolt retail and just sneak into LTE through the back door.

Plus, when you factor in speed tiers as part of a pricing matrix, a 3G or 3G-like speed could easily make up the bottom tier, call it 1.5mbps and unlimited data for $30. Then if you want faster speeds made possible with LTE, they could have 3-4 steps in $5-$10 increments.

We'll see. I doubt they can squeeze nearly as much juice from the smartphone turnip as they may be thinking. For LTE to be a success, they have to put together pricing or a package (i.e. multiple devices) that offers value to the consumer. If they do something like try to charge $40-$45 for 2gigs of data they'll end-up losing money because they'll need to sign-up 5-10 people to that for every 1 that goes to Sprint or AT&T just to break-even. A 5-10% increase in turn (more than conceivable in such a scenario) would probably make this a failed strategy.