I think its smart. I deal with customers all day that complain about why At&t's rates are so high. Most of it is upkeep and maintaining the network and our towers. As is getting customary with the U.S. today most companies outsource parts of their services to other companies. Alltel doesn't itself own any towers it leases towers from companies or directly from Verizon/Sprint/Nextel. Dropping the huge cost of maintaining all these towers allows them to focus more money toward keeping employees and not raising their prices...yeah they might have to relocate some techs who works certain cell sites but overall for the company its the right move.
There are so many costs involved that most people never think about...every single time you call At&t for customer service it costs the company on average $12 to take that call...when you factor in employees, call centers/upkeep, etc. I also feel like you really pay for what you get, Sprint has cheaper plans but their customer service is the worst out of the major carriers.
