[quote=briansd1]Bearishgurl, sorry but what you said makes no sense at all. And I’m an expert at unlocking phones since I travel abroard.
You’ve been with AT&T since 1990. And have never switched. So AT&T had you as a customer and never had to to subsidize your devices.
Who’s the winner here? . . . [/quote]
brian, I got my first cell phone in the mid-nineties and the last time I signed a contract was 2006. Before that, I carried a “pager” on my belt or pocket, lol. In 2006, I got a feature-filled phone for free and with no requirements to subscribe to other services. Since the time my contract expired in 2008, all the feature phones have required $15-$30 mo extra charges per month for texting/internet/mapping functions. I’m not interested in any of these functions but would have to pay for them anyway if I selected one of these phones. They are also no longer “free.” I would likely have to pay $100 for one. A contract is 24 mos long with at least a $175 early-exit fee. The pkg costs are as follows for a 24-month contract term.
24 mos x $15 mo = $360
24 mos x $20 mo = $480
24 mos x $25 mo = $600
24 mos x $30 mo = $720
If you add texting to those pkgs it is even more. I’m sure you’re aware that the carriers are getting the “subsidized” phone paid for in spades from the mandatory subscriptions to these pkgs.
If it weren’t for so many of my contacts being on AT&T (free and unlimited M2M calls), I would get a prepaid service. As it stands, I dress in a bluetooth in the morning along with my clothes and talk thousands of minutes per month and only pay for 450 min.
My situation also leaves me free to tether my phone number to another AT&T customer’s bill for $19.99 mo (formerly $9.99 mo thru Cingular). I have done this twice already but have my own acct again now. By doing this, I lose my existing rollover minutes and also privacy as to my calling record, because the bill is no longer mine. But it’s cheaper for me to give someone a $20 bill every month (or pay them in advance for a few mos) than to pay $45.66, esp now that unlimited minutes are relatively inexpensive. I like to live in the cheapest manner possible so I have more choices in life.
OTOH, my kid has ALL the features and just got fixed up again with the latest and greatest LG phone (not sure of model but its a touch-screen w/a pull-out keyboard and a great camera)! I’m not paying the bill, however :=]
The feature-filled (discontinued) unlocked phone I will purchase on e-bay this summer will cost about $190 – $200. I will put my existing SIM card and memory chip of music and photos in it and be off to the races :=)
