Smartphones not enough for carriers at CTIA

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CALL FOR TIERED PRICING

Another issue is pricing because Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint Nextel Corp and T-Mobile USA have been discounting services to win customers from each other and to fend off Leap Wireless and MetroPCS Communications, which sell prepaid wireless services. Prepaid customers tend to switch carriers often as they do not commit to long-term contracts.

Carriers also have to spend to upgrade their networks in the face of heavy data use by smartphones and other gadgets.

Bernstein's Moffett said operators may have to charge heavy data users more than today's flat fees for unlimited mobile Web surfing. That way they could invest the extra fees in easing network congestion.

"We are in a period of high demand and constrained supply for wireless data (capacity)," Moffett said "That should be a recipe for pricing power."

But carriers have been hesitant because many consumers are still balking at paying $30 or more per month for unlimited data services. Thus, operators are not expected to announce any kind of tiered pricing structure at the CTIA show this year.

Some analysts say the launch of fourth-generation (4G) wireless services could be a good opportunity for carriers to introduce new pricing structures.

Clearwire Corp, which is majority owned by Sprint, is building a 4G network based on an emerging technology known as WiMax. Verizon Wireless, owned by Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc, is also planning a 4G offering.

"That's where we might see prices move somewhat higher," said CL King analyst Lawrence Harris.

But other analysts are less sure, saying they don't expect Sprint to lead the charge with higher pricing when it launches the U.S. market's first 4G phone -- HTC Corp's Supersonic -- expected to be unveiled at CTIA.

For 4G data card customers, Sprint now charges $59.99 a month for unlimited Internet access.

"That will be interesting to see how they price (services for) the Supersonic," Harris said.

Headline speakers at CTIA include AT&T's chief executive, Randall Stephenson, and its mobile chief, Ralph de La Vega, as well as Sprint CEO Dan Hesse and Clearwire CEO William Morrow.

Other speakers include Rene Obermann, CEO of T-Mobile USA's parent Deutsche Telekom, and J.K. Shin, president of the mobile phone unit of Samsung Electronics.