Aggressive Pricing by Wireless Carriers Could Soon End, Analyst Says

Wireless carriers are likely to move away from aggressive pricing aimed at adding subscribers, especially in light of the high prices seen in the AWS-3 auction, said Mark Lowenstein, managing director of Mobile Ecosystem, Friday in a Fierce Wireless blog post. “AT&T and Verizon are going to have to figure out how to somehow fund the twin ambitions of additional spectrum to meet the data needs of customers, while finding additional market opportunities now that organic revenue growth in wireless is maturing.” Sprint and T-Mobile are also becoming more conservative, he said. “With all their financial obligations, I believe the wireless operators are going to be far less reckless, pricing-wise, than they have been over the past 18 months.” This has been a "pretty unique period" for wireless, with 10-20 percent reductions in price, more generous data allocations and aggressive iPhone and device buyout deals aimed at winning customers, he said.