Hold on to your wallet! According to an article in the New York Times, American cell phone bills are most likely about to skyrocket. Why? If AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint don’t get more mobile spectrum from the federal government, then they said they’ll raise your cell phone bill. It’s almost extortion.
In all fairness, the US telecom companies do need the extra bandwidth. Their networks are strained by devices like the iPhone that uses more data, the growing number of mobile data users, the number of devices their customers are using, and consumer’s appetite for mobile video.
In the above mentioned New York Times article, Martin Cooper, the inventor of the cell phone, thinks the telecom companies need to be more creative and less anxious to raise rates. One of his most compelling ideas is to create antennas that can transfer mobile traffic to WiFi networks. In other words, if you got a call on your cell phone but were within a WiFi hotspot, the antenna would automatically transfer your call to the faster WiFi connection and free up the mobile antenna for callers who were not within WiFi range.
Will Your Cell Phone Big Get A Big Increase?
So what’s really going to happen here? Will the government free up some extra spectrum for the telecom companies or will your cell phone bill get a big increase because AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint didn’t get what they wanted? We’re hoping they reach a compromise. What do you think?
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