The thing is the network is already there. They're actually renting them to MVNOs wholesale. If MVNOs are able to offer similar at $30-35 per line, at your spend level, you can be sure you're a fairly valuable customer to AT&T. You're focusing on the additional line cost when really, to AT&T, you're $5,400 every two years in revenue and yes, they wouldn't want to lose you to Verizon or Sprint or T-Mobile.
I'm very happy paying $225 a month for unlimited everything on 6 lines. Before the new UDP's I was paying $35 a month (now $20) for my kids and that included 2GB of data (now unlimited) and they were always going way over the limit to the tune of $50 or $70 a month (now $0) so it's a win all around.
The big change compared to years past is the lack of heavily subsidized hardware. For my wife and I, we'd always get the highest capacity new iPhone for $199 and for the kids they'd get the one that was $0. So when AT&T offered me 2 iPhone X 256GB for $699 each it was greatly appreciated, a bit of a throwback to the old days.
The 4 iPhone X's now in the family will last us more than the usual 2 years, I can't see Apple doing much to advance the genre from here. Edge-to-edge display, wireless charging, OLED, facial recognition, stereo speakers, great camera, I think we're at the end of the line as far as true innovation.
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That $119 is peanuts compared to the profit they will make over that time for your service and potential adhesion of a future AT&T customer on your line or future lines. In fact, that $20 service fee for the extra line will likely cover that amount within the first year.
The AT&T BOGO requires a 30-month commitment so they can collect $600 of revenue and you have to pay the difference if you try to upgrade early.
You mention the actual cost for phone/service and text like it actually costs AT&T an extra $20 (or more) to add an extra line. Like I said, they make a profit from the providing the service...especially on family lines where the amount of extra data/voice/sales used is incremental and the have the ability to not have additional administrative costs for separate lines.
AT&T is entitled to make a profit. I have no idea why people think it's not. Point is they will make
less profit on my family because of the subsidized iPhone X's they just offered us and I pay
less money because of the discounted equipment. Just like the old days when subsidies ran rampant and the carriers were bleeding millions of dollars as a result.
I was not offered the standard BOGO. I went through their Loyalty division, I was offered the 2 discounted iPhone X's for the good ol' 2 year contract, it's 24 months not 30 months.
If I used one of my old paid-off iPhones on the exact same plan as I did the new equipment, it would have cost me the same thing each month. The equipment is the variable, not the service.
This whole tangent of the thread was based on the fact that some refused to believe that US carriers actually gave away equipment. They actually did. And today, while not free, the discount AT&T ate to retain my business on the X's was a greater discount in dollars than the free iPhone 5C they gave me a few years back.