AT&T claims that Iphone customers generate much higher revenue per user than the average, close to $100 a month. However to keep Apple happy, AT&T paid a $400-a-phone subsidy to keep the Iphone cost down for those who signed away their souls on two-year contracts to buy the thing.

For an Iphone customer to make AT&T any cash they have to pay the telecom firm $2,000 a year. If AT&T is right, on average punters are paying $2,400 during that time. But $400 over two years is nothing, really.

But actual revenue figures might be even worse than AT&T is letting on. […] In fact the Iphone subsidy depressed AT&T profit margins, he claimed.
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Then there is the small problem of AT&T’s network. From day one Apple users have complained that the telecom’s network was not up to scratch. Now they are really hammering it, downloading material online for a flat $30 a month fee.