From the NYTimes, "Randall Stephenson, AT&T's chief executive, shared some surprisingly frank comments about the iPhone." Stephenson regrets unlimited data pricing. Since moving to tiered data prices, the company has made more money. DUH!! He cries about "...it's a variable cost model. Every additional megabyte you use in this network, I have to invest capital." Well, if you and de la Vega didn't mismanage the network design and build.... If you just deployed all the spectrum you horde... If you just gave customers what you promised them on the contract that you hold them to... But I digress.

"Stephenson said he worried about services that could replace the company's own offerings." Like Apple's iMessage that replaces text messages. Voice, text and data are the 3 ways that cellcos make money on your usage. Voice and text are in decline. Data is on the rise. Cloud, apps, social media, photos, videos - all connected via your smartphone, use up a lot of data.

"The board (of Cingular) was nervous about the Apple smartphone because it was aware that it would transform its business model, Mr. Stephenson said." Did it?

In related news, VZ is pushing sales to Android LTE handsets. Why? It needs more consumers on its LTE network - and the Apple iPhone isn't a 4G device (yet).

Interesting figures:

only 9% of VZW's 93 million users converted to LTE.

"USB modems and iPads are only 8% of the carrier's postpaid subscriber base."

VZW's 3G network peaked in 2010 at 1MB and is over-crowded now.

AT&T is probably seeing a similar issue with an over-crowded HSPA network.

Sprint probably not so much.

Did you see that Sprint CEO Dan Hesse had to take a $3.25M pay cut due to the iPhone costs? It was that or his job. He should have kept the $3.25M as a parting gift.