He wrote me:
the focus of the ads and campaigns is the package, not the price per minute – there’s no focus on price (whether on a per minute or monthly basis) whatsoever – I don’t think the average consumer does that calculation and that’s where the confusion comes in – you can’t compare apples to apples – obfuscation rules!!!
He added a couple dozen exclamation points, so excuse me for having abridged the quotation.
My reply to him was to look at the personal computer marketplace, and compare it to mobile services. I think there may be a few comparisons. Both are ‘high tech’ productivity devices. The government would like to see all of us using them. For PCs, there seem to be 3 price points: entry level of around $500; mid-level around $1000; and power user (multi-media, gaming) around $1800. Each supplier offers bundled systems around these price ranges and you can take each package and enhance it until you reach the point that you might be better off with the next level of bundled capabilities.
The focus for the PC ads is the package. I don’t see PCs being sold on a dollar per MHz of CPU or cents per MB of storage basis. Still, I don’t think anyone would suggest that there isn’t price competition for PCs. I’d like to have that gaming computer with the 22 inch wide-screen flat panel, dual DVD drives …
Still, would anyone argue that we need a government subsidy to help a new computer company get into the market?