Your cell phone company's dirty little secret

Corporate greed is off again my friends, don't be fooled!

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Mobile phone companies have been lauded for slashing the cost of unlimited voice plans, but many wireless customers' monthly bills are actually going to get a bit more expensive.

Last month, both Verizon (VZ, Fortune 500) and AT&T (T, Fortune 500) lowered their unlimited voice plans by $30 to $70 per month. Sprint (S, Fortune 500) recently unveiled a plan that allows unlimited calls to any mobile device for $60 per month. That brought the three biggest mobile carriers' prices closer to rival T-Mobile, which offers a $60 per month unlimited plan, and in line with a slew of low-cost carriers that offer similar plans for about $40 per month.

But as the wireless giants go around touting their lower voice prices, data plan costs have been quietly moving higher for some non-smartphone customers.

It began with Verizon Wireless. Last month, that company began requiring certain non-smartphone customers to subscribe to a data plan that costs at least $10 per month. Mobile experts believe Verizon's move marks the first step in a larger trend to make up for carriers' lost revenue from voice.

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Rest of the story here.

So it's just anothe gimmick but in the end they will bleed that 30 dollars out of you eh?

How wonderful of Verizon Wireless and AT&T. Not only can they spy on you and get away with it, but they can falsely advertise to you as well.

Thoughts?

~Keeper

I can't prove the following claim, but I predicted this to one of my friends after I read the following article about ATT discouraging data usage. (hypocrits, pushing smart phones yet discouraging data usage!!!)

ATT Discourage Data Usage

"A top AT&T executive told investors today that the company hopes to improve its network by encouraging data hogs to decrease usage. This, of course, is in addition to other measures the company is taking to attempt to answer the criticism that competitors have more reliable networks. How might the AT&T accomplish this goal?

Here's a report from the Associated Press:

AT&T is upgrading its network to cope, but its head of consumer services, Ralph de la Vega, told investors at a UBS conference in New York that it will also give high-bandwidth users incentives to "reduce or modify their usage."

Incentives, eh? Like if you don't use as much data, AT&T will knock $5 off your monthly bill? I doubt it. That would result in millions of users having lower bills, and an awful lot less revenue for AT&T.

The only realistic methods for giving users an "incentive" to use less data is to have some kind of system to charge heavy users more. That could mean a surcharge if you go over a certain monthly allotment. Alternatively, AT&T could create tiers of data usage that fees are based on. There's also the more basic pay-per-megabyte consumed option. One way or another, the "incentive" to use less data will, no doubt, give heavy users the opportunity to avoid new fees if they cut down their usage."

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Again, what colossal hypocrites pushing expensive "smartphones" while actively discouraging full usage of sad devices.

Once again, showing how outrageously greedy these corporations are.

I would say these companies have MANY dirty secrets.