[nickjj]

> Because this is what the market agrees to bear.

I think it's more than that because a lot of folks aren't aware of the costs until they need to or want to move and then they get hit with a massive bill.

So maybe they chalk it up to experience and pay the bill because they have no other choice or calculated it's still better in the long term.

To me that's a much difference scenario than walking into a store and happily buying a dozen eggs for anywhere between $1 and $1.50. In this case you know what you're getting into before you make the purchase and everyone around you (other customers and businesses) decided that's what eggs will sell for in the open market. With outgoing data fees, it's more like a "take it or leave it" price dictated by the provider while they already have your data and there's no price competition since they are the sole business with your data.

Whether or not it's the customer's fault for not doing enough research is debatable, but it certainly doesn't help that most providers make it pretty difficult to calculate costs.

[kick]

That's still the market.

The market isn't exclusively good, and has many failure modes. This is one of them.

[nothrabannosir]

While true, this dilutes the value of the statement. At that rate every price point “is the market”, and nothing of further interest can ever be said about counter intuitive pricing.

Sure, it’s the market. Why? Is it a Giffen good? Is it a case of very poor visibility of services to consumers? ...? There is something interesting going on, let’s figure it out.