Will the proliferation of free WiFi cause cellular data pricing to drop?

[CalgaryMan]

I was just talking with a friend regarding smartphone plans and we just realized that free WiFi is almost everywhere and the number of hotspots seems to be growing at an ever increasing rate.

We were thinking that as WiFi becomes so prevalent that people might start to cut back on or even completely drop data plans because the will have such little value given their huge expense and as a result, the carriers will be forced to reduce the cost of data plans in order for people to consider buying them. What do you think?

[Piro21]

carriers will ... reduce the cost of data plans

It won't happen. We'll see a CRTC mandate banning open wifi long before they ever decide to drop prices.

[l69norm]

....We were thinking that as WiFi becomes so prevalent that people might start to cut back ...

Yes, but it won't be full free wifi. I think Shaw has plans to blanket cities with wifi:
http://www.shaw.ca/Internet/WiFi/

I think the model might be really slow wifi speed for free and then pay for faster speeds. That's how goNaeco free wifi works in calgary
https://secure.gonaeco.com/AB_Hawkwood1/signup_new.aspx

[madman604]

Shaw plans to offer free wifi to existing customers. At least that's the plan.

[LeeBear]

It won't happen. The cell companies already "force" you to buy a data plan if you want a smartphone... which is pretty much every phone made nowadays. If anything the cell companies will find other ways to keep you using there overprice data. For example before mid January you were able to get a subsidized smartphone on Rogers, then pay a $100 Early Cancellation Fee to remove data for those who don't need it, now they've changed the fee to $450 to basically disallow that. Even the "flex data" plans are a joke... they're just there to cash grab an extra $5+ from the customers because anyone who uses data is going to go over the 25MB limit they give you for $5.

-LeeBear

[dragon_drift]

Wow. The $450 ECF is news to me. That's just excessive.

[Hairball]

I guess people could use data less if cheap or free wifi is more readily available. This can really only work in cities though, out in remote areas there's no way there will be wifi everywhere.

[sandikosh]

It won't happen. The cell companies already "force" you to buy a data plan if you want a smartphone... which is pretty much every phone made nowadays. If anything the cell companies will find other ways to keep you using there overprice data. For example before mid January you were able to get a subsidized smartphone on Rogers, then pay a $100 Early Cancellation Fee to remove data for those who don't need it, now they've changed the fee to $450 to basically disallow that. Even the "flex data" plans are a joke... they're just there to cash grab an extra $5+ from the customers because anyone who uses data is going to go over the 25MB limit they give you for $5.

-LeeBear

People were abusing the policy. Pay for a plan keep it for a month, cancel it and pay a small fee, and still get the phone for less than buying it outright.

[Gee]

Is this a west coast thing?

Where I frequent, I have a hard time finding any WiFi.

[LeeBear]

People were abusing the policy. Pay for a plan keep it for a month, cancel it and pay a small fee, and still get the phone for less than buying it outright.

How is it abusing the policy? You were still stuck for 3 years on the voice portion of the contract ($30-$40 a month = $1080 to $1440) unless you pay another $400 to get out of the voice portion. I don't see how $100 (Data ECF) + $400 (Voice ECF) + $50 (minimum 1 month) + $159 (typical subsized phone price) + $25 (admin fee) = $734 cheaper then buying the phone outright? The new early cancellation policy is the real abuse by the incumbents. By setting the Data portion to $450 and the Voice portion to $50 they've effectively locked you in for data even though some people may never use it (because of readily available WiFi). And for people who may only want data and no voice contract because they may use a SIP phone the incumbent won't let you remove just the Voice portion of the contract, how is that not abuse?

-LeeBear