Originally Posted By: BrianWC
To be fair, carrier subsidies make up a lot of the "low-cost" since they know they have you for a couple of years. And except for the ability to text, I'm not sure there's much advantage to today's phones. I've hated AT&T from the moment they went GSM.
There are some, but it may not be significant to many users:
1) lower power -> use of smaller battery -> lower cost and lighter
2) multiple antenna (MIMO) -> extended range and higher bandwidth -> lower transmission cost and better signal quality (newer generation of signals / tower only)
3) better signal processors -> better range, better signal quality, less dropped calls, lower transmission power, smaller battery, smaller size, etc
Then you have all these fashion statements like flip phone, touch screen, texting, video, camera, etc. Most of the time a phone is a phone but it is getting much cheaper to operate the network with newer technologies (i.e. support more users without raising more towers) than before.
I wouldn't have imagine a plan with 5 lines with 350 mins per month, unlimited mobile to mobile, unlimited nights and weekends, for only $90/month 10 years ago.