 tiger72SexaT duorPPremium
join:2001-03-28
Saint Louis, MO
kudos:1
 ·T-Mobile US
| reply to Martindziad
Re: Wow I really hope they dont said by Martindziad:Cause lets be honest, ATT is going down down down and this is their life line. Eventually they will have to cut their workforce because they are so huge, this will happen when they will start loosing contract and customers due to crappy service like this. But they *haven't* been losing contracts and customers. The iPhone has kept them afloat because people will apparently endure ATT for the jesusphone.
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"What makes us omniscient? Have we a record of omniscience? ...If we can't persuade nations with comparable values of the merit of our cause, we'd better reexamine our reasoning."
-United States Secretary of Defense (1961-1968) Robert S. McNamara |
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 MattAll noise, no signal.Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
kudos:12 | said by tiger72:said by Martindziad:Cause lets be honest, ATT is going down down down and this is their life line. Eventually they will have to cut their workforce because they are so huge, this will happen when they will start loosing contract and customers due to crappy service like this. But they *haven't* been losing contracts and customers. The iPhone has kept them afloat because people will apparently endure ATT for the jesusphone. You are exactly right. I want to cancel my 3 AT&T lines, pay the ETF fees and move, but my GF does not want to lose her iPhone. She doesn't care about the horrible service we receive, she just like those little free downloadable games. While she has a compelling argument in regards to the ETF fees, once they are gone, so are we. |
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 EdG
@eastlink.ca | Buy her an iPod Touch - dump the iphone. No more charges, and she's happy as a..... |
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| reply to tiger72
Right- they were lowering Churn since before the iPhone and have kept churn low. |
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MattAll noise, no signal.Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
kudos:12 | reply to EdG
said by EdG :
Buy her an iPod Touch - dump the iphone. No more charges, and she's happy as a.....
That's a damn good idea actually ... |
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| reply to tiger72
Exactly. AT&T is a giant bag of suck when it comes to pricing, customer service and network reliability (not that the others are much better; I'm not a groupie for any phone company, but at least people would be able to TRY somebody else), and everybody knows it.
The iPhone deal is the only thing the Death Star has going for it; AT&T would lose subscribers by the millions if there were another (authorized) option for iPhone service. They can't afford to lose it, so they'll send trucks full of money up to Steve Jobs' house until he says "Okay, that's enough" and signs the extension. |
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iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
kudos:2 | reply to Matt
The new iTouches were released Wednesday that have the performance of the 3GS. $299 for 32GB. |
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MattAll noise, no signal.Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
kudos:12 | said by iansltx:The new iTouches were released Wednesday that have the performance of the 3GS. $299 for 32GB. God Apple stuff is way too expensive. I'll probably wait for a refurb of the old model to show up on the Apple Store. |
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 Steve BPremium
join:2004-08-02
Seattle, WA | reply to Matt
I can just see the huge ass grin on your face now, lmao. |
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iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
kudos:2 | reply to Matt
How about this?
»store.apple.com/us/browse/home/s···cwNjg5OA |
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| reply to Matt
jailbreak her iPhone and move to TM. |
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MattAll noise, no signal.Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
kudos:12
1 edit | reply to iansltx
I've bought almost all my Apple products as refurbs. I have a problem paying $149 for an iPod Touch when I only paid $99 for my iPhone though ... 
Technically, there's nothing stopping me from just not using cell data on one of our iPhones right? |
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iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
kudos:2 Reviews:
 ·Comcast
| Nothing stopping you, as long as you switch carriers.
AT&T automagically adds a data plan to any SIM that touches an iPhone, or so I'm told.
Also, your iPhone was subsidized. The iTouch isn't. Considering the (unsubsidized) price of the 32GB iTouch is the same as that of the subsidized 32GB iPhone, I don't see a problem here. |
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| Not to pick on you guys specifically, but it always annoys me when I read: subsidy.
There's no such thing as a carrier subsidy.
A subsidy implies you're getting something for free. No wireless carrier is doing that. What they're providing you is financing.
When you get a loan to buy a car or a mortgage to buy a home, that's financing. The lender isn't giving you something for free. Quite the contrary, you're paying them back and then some (a lot in fact).
Proper lending is (sort of) regulated, there's legislation and regulations dealing with all that. The terms need to be spelled out. They required to provide you with critical info like: principle (amt borrowed), interest rate, total interest payments over life of loan, etc.
But unlike traditional loans, wireless contracts aren't like that. There's opacity and subterfuge as far as the eye can see. The wireless carriers want it like that so they can bundle the financing costs with the cost of service, and you don't know the difference.
If people understood that $20-30 of their monthly fees paid for their phone, and the effective interest on it is really 10-30%, they'd see it for what it really is:
A scam. |
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 jmn1207Premium
join:2000-07-19
Ashburn, VA | The reason "subsidy" is used is because, for all practical purposes, the phone is heavily discounted, or free, since the cost of service is no different for a phone purchased outright.
I could have spent $600 for my Blackberry, but I would still end up paying $99 for the Sprint plan that best suited my usage. The only thing I could save on is the early termination fees. And the major carriers have been doing everything they can to try and make it as difficult as possible to take your equipment from one service provider to another.
Until I am offered a significantly discounted service plan with the features I want by bringing my own phone to the game, the cost of the phones are mostly considered to be subsidized. It's just the way the system works over here. Things are much different in other places around the world, but ours is an economic culture that relies heavily on credit and financing. What other people carry as much debt?
Right or wrong, welcome to the US. |
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| reply to EdG
I have a iPhone with no contract(bought off ebay) and am using Verizon's MiFi for my everywhere Internet connection. I use wifi too as I'm on the $40 MiFi monthly plan. I don't have a cell plan and use the Fring application to accept calls via Skype. Though I'm not a phone talker and I prefer/use text based communications the most (SMS, Instant message, Twitter & Facebook). Not an ideal for most, but serves my needs at only $40 a month! |
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| reply to Matt
What? The carrier subsidy makes it no more expensive than other smartphones. |
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| reply to Samsonian
This also works in favor of the carrier because you don't know how much of your contract is for service and how much is for the the handset.
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| said by jmn1207:The reason "subsidy" is used is because, for all practical purposes, the phone is heavily discounted, or free, since the cost of service is no different for a phone purchased outright. Until I am offered a significantly discounted service plan with the features I want by bringing my own phone to the game, the cost of the phones are mostly considered to be subsidized. said by clickie:This also works in favor of the carrier because you don't know how much of your contract is for service and how much is for the the handset. That's the whole problem.
There's no incentive for buying your own phone outright in the U.S. Wireless carriers bundle the cost of service together with the cost of the phone. This hides the true costs.
To add insult to injury, people think they're getting a good deal under this system. A "subsidy," despite it being completely illusionary.
I don't think this will change unless the government requires the cost of financing to detailed/itemized separating from the cost of service. We require the cost of most other types of loans to be detailed, this isn't any different. |
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MRCUR
join:2007-03-09
Columbia, PA | reply to Samsonian
Carriers subsidize phones plain and simple. That's what it's always been called and what it's always going to be called. I would rather pay $200 for my iPhone and be locked in with AT&T for another two years than pay $600 - heck, my monthly prices don't change anyway (which is exactly your point it seems). |
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