A recent national US survey found that many Americans are switching to prepaid services from their postpaid deals. Specifically, they found that 17 percent of contract cell phone users have switched to prepaid within the past six months.
That seems like a pretty large number, so it came as a surprise to see a headline come up in an article: “No Huge Shift to Prepaid Wireless Foreseen due to the Recession”. What could the writer mean by that, in the face of the data presented?
It turns out the author, Samual Greenholtz, published another article on the same day, refuting the findings of the New Millennium Research Council, who did the survey. Specifically, he questioned their methodology in coming up with the prepaid numbers. So perhaps 17 percent of postpaid users have not, in fact, switched to prepaid cell phones?
Greenholtz was quoted here as saying:
While possible that some people may switch from post-paid to prepaid plans as a means of saving money due to additional fees for the former, it is not likely that there will be a big shift. The rationale is that the wireless carriers are getting smarter about how to price to consumers so that its more of a hassle to switch to prepaid than it’s worth.
Are companies improving postpaid offerings though? From what i’ve seen, not very much. I’d be more inclined to agree that many people are switching to prepaid that are tightening their belts, and 17% sounds like about right.
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