Fed’s Rate Decision May Have Come Down to Phone Plan Changes

A jump in cellphone service prices helped push core US CPI (ex-food, energy) up 0.3% in August, beating forecasts and making a Fed rate hike next week more likely.
Economists say plan changes by big carriers — AT&T raising some prices and T‑Mobile retiring legacy plans — are the likely culprits.
Wireless price increases added roughly 0.1 percentage point to the core reading; without them core CPI would have been about 0.2%.