Geldpress

Was the iPhone Deal Worth It for AT&T?

The $900 million iPhone cost to AT&T only includes subsidies and other up front sales and marketing costs. The true cost of the iPhone to AT&T is in the additional demand it places on the RF network. With a voice call, a user only occupies one time slot. But with a data session - something the iPhone is remarkably good at hogging up - a user can occupy 4 or even 8 simultaneous time slots. Those data time slots are extremely expensive to AT&T because they place additional constraints on the voice network. When AT&T tunes the network at each cell site, they pre-determine how many data time slots vs voice slots are available. The more iPhone demand, the more data slots they need, and the more cell sites they have to build. AT&T does not come forth with accurate iPhone data usage statistics, but it's virtually certain that they are losing their A$$ES by selling the data plan to iPhone subs.
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