the stupid u.s. phone system!

[annyksa]

everytime i hear someone talk about carriers and phones stuck with the carriers i feel sorry for you! i am american but i live over seas where we pick our phone independent (from the cellphone shop!) of the carrier, and we only have 2 carriers to choose from! its very simple this way. :lol:

[Janak Parekh]

That's not entirely true. :) Buying locked, subsidized phones is the cheapest way to get phones anywhere. It just so happens the US doesn't really sell carrier-independent phones, and while that's lamentable, we can buy them unlocked from the web, if for a bit more money.

And in any case, our data and voice plans are cheaper. So, there's ups and downs.

--janak

[Vincent M Ferrari]

Don't feel sorry for me. We pay a heck of a lot less for our phones than you guys do ;-)

[Sven Johannsen]

we only have 2 carriers to choose from! its very simple this way. :lol:

It would be even simpler if there was only 1 choice...wait...that's actually no choice.

[Edgar_]

If you travel much in the US you really only have 3 major carriers, AT&T (Cingular), T-Mo and Verizon. Yea yea, Sprint Nextel 0- but have you have tried them with extensive travelling? Regional players could be cheaper if you stay local (Suncom, MetroPCS, etc) but they'll nail you with extra fees for roaming and can be quite a handfull if you have problems.

With AT&T buying 100% of Cingular I suspect Sprint/Nextel will be the next US consolidation anyways. They are niche when compared to the other players. For that matter, so is T-Mo but at least they are building out and trying.

Buying a subsidized phone then spending some money to unlock it is still cheaper than buying an unlocked phone straight out. By the way, you should see if your company has a plan under Cingular. If so, you may not only beable to get a discount but more importantly you probably won't require a contract.

-Edgar

[Vincent M Ferrari]

That's an important point also...

There really aren't many carriers that matter nationally, so it's really 6 of one and half a dozen of the other. I'm partial to T-Mobile. Their coverage is on par in New York City with other carriers, but their data plans are significantly cheaper than anyone else's. Also, T-Mobile doesn't disable features in their phones when they ship them out the door (except, of course for disabling the 802.11g when they shipped the MDA, but that's easy enough to fix, honestly).

Most people don't switch carriers, so buying an unlocked phone is really an irrelevant idea in this country (churn rates, at their highest, rarely reach more than 13%). Once you have a phone, you're pretty likely to stick with the carrier you bought it from. All in all, I think subsidization does offer you more flexibility and keeps the costs of phones down dramatically (compare an unlocked iMate K-Jam with the T-Mobile MDA).