Originally Posted by WelshBluebird:
“"regardless of the merger that trend that will increase"
So more prices rises to come then?”
In general yes... because....
The cost of deploying 4G
The licensing costs for the extra spectrum
The new Ofcom spectrum fees on top of the initial license
The EU roaming rate changes
The termination rate changes
The free 0800 revenue lost
The 03 and other charge changes
The fact that there's a fixed amount of mobile spectrum available and demand doubling year on year
The increase of high bandwidth video usage on Twitch, YouTube iPlayer, Netflix and other services as they are used on mobiles more and more
The EU caps on the amount that can be charged per day
The need for more small cells and more infrastructure to deliver more and more data
The loss of SMS and Voice revenue to apps and VOIP service like Skype, Viber and What's app
I could go on....
If you used double the electricity this year you'd expect an increase would you not?
Remember the amount in your data plan, the allowance means nothing. It is usage that is growing and therefore the cost of supplying that and the capacity needed has a cost. It also means that plans which worked ok several years ago are no longer viable in some cases like giffgaff's unlimited or Three's One Plan.