Some economics buffs might recognize this as the same mechanic that prevents cartels from being able to price fix in a free market.
But they still price fix. Just look at cable and phone bills. Data usage plans and text plans.Sending texts actually costs wireless providers nothing. Every time your phone checks for a signal, it sends an echo request consisting of 160 gibberish characters, and does this around every second. When you send a text, instead of sending gibberish, it sends meaningful text. The "cost" to the provider is literally zero. You might ask yourself, then, why doesn't one service provider just offer free texting and gain a huge competitive advantage over all the other companies? Then they would all have to offer free texting to survive, but none of them want to. So... price fixing is alive and well, whether legal or not.
In your example they didnt do the free texting first because they can make more money by still charging until something revolutionary comes along, its all about profits. If you can get away with it do it and help to pay the bills and fatten your pocket until you are forced to adapt.
This is the same thing when the Chinese asic companies went independent and blew the market away late 2013 and early 3014. Now they know they can design and manufacture and bring to market the asic machines faster then anyone else they stay just below the other companies, US and Europe that people will still but their equipment, and will keep competitively lowering prices as difficulty changes and other players come on board.
