It's no secret that mobile carriers make pennies on the dollar to provide the public with cellular service, the biggest profits come from the add-ons that everyone buys: the premiums for unlimited coverage, insurance, cell phone covers, you name it. And we buy it from them because we like the extra service or the convenience. Profit pools are created by bringing customers in with a low margin product in order to get them to buy a product with a high margin. It's the way businesses often work!
As our increasingly compulsive need to "always be on our cell phone at all times" has increased, so has government regulation on dangerous cell phone usage. I don't think I make it more than a week at a time without hearing a tragic story about a foolish individual crashing while driving and texting. In many states it has become illegal to talk or text on the phone while driving.
People can't seem to be disciplined enough to drop cell usage while driving. Therefore, several cell phone carriers are coming out with the option to add a new service for $4.99/month that automatically jams your cell phone while you drive. That's right, we are going to pay a mobile carrier $5 a month to turn our phone off.
The technology isn't anything new; however, the profit pool is. You can be certain that the mobile carriers will be trying to get as much mileage as they can out of the positive "socially responsible" media coverage that this new service will produce. But don't be fooled, the potential profits are what motivate these carriers to put together this new service. Nonetheless, kudos to them for innovatively finding a new profit pool!
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