I don't get the US phone carrier system

[Abdul Rahman Noor]

Thank you OP for bringing this up. I'm confused how people seem to get phones "subsidized" when you're locked on for 2 years. I bought my L820 for ?370 (with a free wireless charger and Windows8 Pro DVD - freebies themselves that cost around ?100).

I'm not a big talker so on an average I spend about ?20 on different PAYG (with 1gig 3G data)
So my total cost for two years is 370 + (24 x 20) = ?850

To compare, vodafone's L820 is "free" with ?38/month = ?912.
(other plans offer less than 500MB data)

Unless my Math's really off, it's not a bargain unless you talk a lot.

 

[Zokudu]

You've got to consider you're essentially taking out a loan to subsidize a phone so a ?62 markup seems fair. I feel like subsidizing has its place. Some people feel weird dumping such a large amount of money on a device upfront or in the US the way cellular evolved (and a little bit of convenient legislation no ones in a hurry to repeal) it just works better.

One thing people seem to be missing when talking about the US carriers is that you can buy a phone outright. Say a 920 and do an MVNO, AT&T without a contract, AT&T prepaid BYOD plans or even T-Mobile (without 4g). Some MVNOs are nice over here. One of the big AT&T MVNOs has unlimited talk, text and data (throttled after 2GB) for $45 a month. There's nothing stopping us from doing that.

 

[Daniel Ratcliffe]

Thank you OP for bringing this up. I'm confused how people seem to get phones "subsidized" when you're locked on for 2 years. I bought my L820 for ?370 (with a free wireless charger and Windows8 Pro DVD - freebies themselves that cost around ?100).

I'm not a big talker so on an average I spend about ?20 on different PAYG (with 1gig 3G data)
So my total cost for two years is 370 + (24 x 20) = ?850

To compare, vodafone's L820 is "free" with ?38/month = ?912.
(other plans offer less than 500MB data)

Unless my Math's really off, it's not a bargain unless you talk a lot.

I prefer to do a like-for-like comparison. As in same deal, just one includes the phone, the other doesn't. So let's use Three's "The One Plan" for comparison.

Both deals are exactly same (2k any-network mins, 5k same-network mins, 5k texts, unlimited data with tethering included)

SIM-only (phone costs ?350): ?25/mth
With HTC 8X for free: ?26/mth

As you pay ?1/mth extra to get the phone subsidized, essentially the phone costs you ?24.

 

[Robinsonmac]

I have 4 smart phones on Verizon with the family share plan with Unlimited talk, text & 8 GB of data for $200 per month(plus taxes, fees & insurance which comes to $227.) My wife & one daughter have IPhone's which cost $100 each. I have a HTC Trophy & my other daughter has a Lumia 822. The Trophy was $50 & the 822 free plus Wal-Mart sent me a $100 gift card. We all upgrade & get new phones every 18 months even though the contract is for 2 years.

Subsidized Plan:

$227 X 18 months = $4086 + $250 for the phones = $4336

Un-subsidized plan:

$227 X 18 months = $4086 + $1100 for 2 IPhones & $900 for the Trophy & 822 = $6086

As you can see there is no benefit from me buying the phones upfront from Verizon because they don't lower the plan if you do. If they lowered the plan costs I'd be all over it. Also since Verizon uses CDMA for voice & LTE for data, I couldn't take my phone to AT&T or TMobile even if I did buy the phones up front.(I have read that the Verizon 8X is unlocked but don't know if anyone has gotten it to work on a GSM network in the US) Also everyone in the US is forgetting that congress is trying to pass legislation to reverse the carrier locked phone law that went into effect 3 weeks ago.... Pretty much the US system is a %^&%@ mess........

 

[mrmdj31675]

You couldn't even take a global device designed to work on Verizon by default to another CDMA carrier like Sprint or C-Spire as examples (there's the flashing an IMEI, but that is not done by Verizon or Sprint, but heard storiea about being able to do so on MetroPCS except for Windows Phone devices).

 

[LeLee092]

Remember we also have MetroPCS and VirginMOBILE that work like other countries, where you just pay full price for a phone, find a plan that fits you and off you go, no contract no nothing just monthly payment..
I just finished buying my Uncle a phone from VirginMobile...Only problem with these companies is that they're very late at getting new phones, most of their hotshot phones are now mid-level phones (example their upscale phones right now on Virgin is the Samsung Galaxy II and the iPhone 4s :/), and if you do buy a premium device unlocked, you have all the broadband/techy things to worry about and might not work with these companies

So yeah we have options, but when it comes with premium right out of the oven technology phones, your only viable option is a 2 year contract with a one of the big 4 (att, verizon, sprint, tmobile)

 

[Coreldan]

One thing people seem to be missing when talking about the US carriers is that you can buy a phone outright. Say a 920 and do an MVNO, AT&T without a contract, AT&T prepaid BYOD plans or even T-Mobile (without 4g). Some MVNOs are nice over here. One of the big AT&T MVNOs has unlimited talk, text and data (throttled after 2GB) for $45 a month. There's nothing stopping us from doing that.

Perhaps, but at that price it's still not cheap for what it gets you.

 

[Daniel Ratcliffe]

One thing people seem to be missing when talking about the US carriers is that you can buy a phone outright. Say a 920 and do an MVNO, AT&T without a contract, AT&T prepaid BYOD plans or even T-Mobile (without 4g). Some MVNOs are nice over here. One of the big AT&T MVNOs has unlimited talk, text and data (throttled after 2GB) for $45 a month. There's nothing stopping us from doing that.

So it's about ?25/mth... you can go with one of the big 4 here (our big 4 are O2, EE {Orange/T-Mobile}, Vodafone, and Three, as they all own a good chunk of spectrum, Three is the one offering this deal), and get 2000 any network minutes, 5000 same network minutes, 5000 texts, and unlimited data with tethering included (and no throttling, my mate went through 83GB in a month with no throttling or extra charges). Still seems like a bit of a sour deal.

 

[Flagz]

So it's about ?25/mth... you can go with one of the big 4 here (our big 4 are O2, EE {Orange/T-Mobile}, Vodafone, and Three, as they all own a good chunk of spectrum, Three is the one offering this deal), and get 2000 any network minutes, 5000 same network minutes, 5000 texts, and unlimited data with tethering included (and no throttling, my mate went through 83GB in a month with no throttling or extra charges). Still seems like a bit of a sour deal.

I pay 44.99 a month for mobile. I went 40GB+ Oone month no throttle or charge not to shabby.