Could iPhone users benefit from the increasing price wars over wireless data plans? Giant mobile carrier AT&T is speaking out as a number of analyst suggest iPhone service price drops are inevitable.
AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega told tech site Engadget the No. 1 wireless carrier is in frequent contact with Apple on how to improve the iPhone’s performance.
“We communicate with Apple and say, you know, if we tweak this it would work better,” he said. “They’ve been very good about working with us,” de la Vega said, describing Apple’s response.
On Monday, Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu said the price of carrier data plans, not iPhone hardware, has caused a slowdown in iPhone sales, opening the door for Sprint and T-Mobile to gain a foothold in the smartphone market.
Wu noted both Sprint Boost Mobile and T-Mobile have begun $50 unlimited service plans. Although T-Mobile charges an extra $25 for unlimited data, it beats the $80 per month AT&T service plan.
Wu recently suggested AT&T and Apple may be open to multi-tier plans to combat rivals’ pricing pressures.
Those wireless pricing pressures are akin to the shakeout in rates that happened with wired DSL and cable broadband.
For its part, AT&T said it would update reduce prices for international users and upgrade its U.S. 3G network.
