cheapo phones and cellular service in 2013?

[OBLAMA2009]

what do you think of this:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100334769

it basically says phones are going to get much cheaper and cellular service will get cheap as voice service becomes unnecessary (because of VoIP). so verizon/att are just going to agree to give up all that revenue? (why wouldnt they just keep the price of data high to make up for lost voice revenue)

also if the "lower-end nexus" doesnt have lte, whats kind of data is it going to have? 3g? then how is it going to ditch the voice?

 

[Eug]

That basically just reads like somebody's blog wishlist, not a real article.

BTW, my voice plan is already closing in to about the same cost as a landline around here. I have unlimited voice, unlimited Canada-wide long distance, and unlimited texts, as well as 2 GB data for $56. It's under $50 if you don't need data.

My land line with unlimited voice and 800 long distance minutes is 40+ bux IIRC, and obviously it doesn't include texts or data. I just keep it around because of my home security system.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

theyre predicting $20 a month for a phone that only needs data

 

[Ksyder]

Thats great... except no carrier is going to sell you just data... and T-Mobile $30 plan, sure.... that is a great deal. However, unless you are in HSPA+ territory, there will be no voip... and I wouldn't sacrifice calling quality in exchange for a few bucks a month. Not to mention you are going to be using groove ip or something like that, and then having to worry about 2 phone numbers or possibly 2 text message notifications at the minimum... and if you are on the $30 t-mobile plan you have free texts anyway. I don't know but it seems like alot of hassle.

I spent a part of this year on t-mobile and unless you are in the city you are on edge data. This is not even fast enough for web browsing let alone anything else.

 

[Ksyder]

I will skip straight to the bottom line here: Google will pressure Sprint and T-Mobile resellers to offer a fat bucket of data — 5 gig or even 10 gig — for $19 per month. You get your SMS and calling from Google for free. That's it — $199 for a Nexus 5 smartphone, plus $19 per month for everything: "Do you hear me now?"

Sounds like a fantasy. I think the experienced smartphone user knows this is unlikely at best. And I'm sure the blazing Sprint 3g network will handle all of that voip traffic no problem.