Future Lack Of Sim Card Carriers?

With the merger coming up, there's plenty of concern about options for cell phone users, and ensuring adequate competition (especially for people who use unlocked cell phones to switch between carriers and policy changes).

But is there more competion than the big carriers?

In a blog over at the Huffington Post Nathan Newman discusses the different things competing with the service providers. Normally broken up into data, text, and voice minutes, each of these three things is already competing with each other. For example, saving money and prepaying for minutes service only, teens who text as their primary form of communication, or people who use data, coupled with free wifi service and cheap apps, to avoid paying service prices.

As he points out, service prices have been falling for decades. And as more people not only use smart phones (and apps that text over data, etc.), but unlocked cell phones, which take the power away from the service provider, prices will likely keep dropping regarldless of the number of service providers. When you can prepay minutes (assuming you don't use them much), and get everything else over wifi in your home or local coffee shops, having only one or two main service providers per region becomes less of a hassal.

But then…there's the satelittes. No matter how you pay for your minutes, someone has to maintain and replace that network. Satelite TV providers, who are also losing costumers, may soon face similar dilemas. It's not as easy at is once was to get satelites into space, since old models and junk fill the most desirable orbit. Clearing it out, reconfiguring for a less convenient orbit, etc. will all be problems that will have to be addressed at some point.

For now, and even after the merger, anyone worried about changes from service providers, less competitative prices, etc. can add eom competition to their world by using unlocked cell phones (and finding different ways to use them smartly!).