T-Mobile's purchase of Sprint has led to higher prices for US consumers, according to Rewheel.
The research firm has found that monthly prices are about two to three times higher and gigabyte rates are five to six times higher in markets with only three mobile network operators.
In contrast, a market with four mobile networks fosters healthier competition, resulting in lower prices for customers.
In markets with only three major network operators, consumers pay three times more for mobile plans with 100GB of data and also pay 60 percent more every month for fixed broadband services.
That's perhaps the reason why the T-Mobile and Sprint merger made the US one of the most expensive markets in the world, even as prices of voice and data plans and broadband plans continue to fall across most European and OECD countries.
Before T-Mobile and Sprint's merger in 2020, prices were falling in the US, but after that, prices either stopped falling completely or decreased at a lower rate.The findings were based on the monthly prices of plans with 50GB of data, 10 Mbit/s speeds, and at least 1,000 minutes.
This doesn't align with a report from CTIA, which claims that the cost per megabyte of data decreased by a whopping 98 percent from 2012 to 2022.
Dish was meant to replace Sprint as the country's fourth largest provider, notes Light Reading, but the company's struggles keep it from becoming a threat to AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile, all of whom view price hikes as an important part of their strategy to boost revenue.
The increase in prices hasn't impacted customer loyalty though, with all three carriers reporting historically low levels of churn (number of customers leaving a company) for the first quarter.
Anam Hamid is a computer scientist turned tech journalist who has a keen interest in the tech world, with a particular focus on smartphones and tablets. She has previously written for Android Headlines and has also been a ghostwriter for several tech and car publications. Anam is not a tech hoarder and believes in using her gadgets for as long as possible. She is concerned about smartphone addiction and its impact on future generations, but she also appreciates the convenience that phones have brought into our lives. Anam is excited about technological advancements like folding screens and under-display sensors, and she often wonders about the future of technology. She values the overall experience of a device more than its individual specs and admires companies that deliver durable, high-quality products. In her free time, Anam enjoys reading, scrolling through Reddit and Instagram, and occasionally refreshing her programming skills through tutorials.
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