My com­par­i­son of AT&T’s post-paid ver­sus pre­paid call­ing plans gave me some insight into how wire­less ser­vice providers make their money. Based on this empir­i­cal evi­dence, the bot­tom line is that, just as peo­ple thought, we’re being overcharged.

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My TDMA ser­vice through AT&T Wire­less is num­bered. More so now since they’re upping the main­te­nance charge from $5 to $10 next month, giv­ing me an even greater incen­tive to switch plans. The rea­son I’ve been hold­ing back on upgrad­ing, despite hav­ing an ancient brick of a phone (Nokia 5165), is because even with the main­te­nance charge, my bill is $10 less than the cheap­est con­tract avail­able from AT&T. Now that the price gap is smaller, this gave me the moti­va­tion to ana­lyze my usage and com­pare rate plans.

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The iPhone, after years of spec­u­la­tion, rumor, hope, and antic­i­pa­tion, finally debuted yes­ter­day. The flurry of acco­lades and crit­i­cisms (for a demo prod­uct mind you) exploded over the next 24 hours, as Asia and Europe woke up to the news, and the com­men­tary hasn’t slowed down since. I’m going to hold off on my final judg­ment until June, but as far as first impres­sions go, this one was amazing.

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