My contract worked out well and not so well for me. Worked out well in that I send a slew of texts and picture texts each month that are covered by the contract charge, not so well in that I chose to have a set number of off peak calls per month and made more day time calls than I thought. I’ve seen a few more tempting contracts for the end of the month, that and my phones never seem to last long between dropping them and water/rain damage.
My biggest gripe is not contracts, I really don’t mind a 2 year deal with AT&T or Verizon or whomever. What I hate is having to have the phone locked to that provider. I understand in Europe (and most the rest of the world?) that you own the phone and if your contract is up or you want to switch carriers you just swap the SIM cards.
I just do not understand why we tolerate this “locking” of the phones. I know the bull-shite reasons the providers give for this but they just don’t hold water. Pretty much the rest of the world manages just fine without locked phones.
MeanJoe
Ugh, sorry this post is probably bordering on Pit territory.
Same in the UK I’m afraid, my last PAYG mobile came with a Virgin SIM card, to get an O2 card in it I had to have the phone unlocked. This is not something the O2 shop said they could do for me, they directed me to a small stall in the shopping centre outside their shop and said they could do it. The guy at the stall unlocked the phone in a minute with a small device, with the warning that the phone wasn’t guaranteed any more if I did this.
Worth it to pursue a girl I was after, so that I could avoid £20 phone calls on the land line to her mobile…
Ignorance Fought! Thanks, I was not aware that the contract/locked phone thing was pervasive in the UK.
As of some time this year or so, all US cell phone companies are required, by law, to unlock your phone for free if asked. I had to use my US phone overseas, called up the Cingular hotline, gave them my IMEI number and they sent me the unlock instructions via email in a day or two. Works fine now on a foreign carrier.
French phones are usually locked to the carrier.
Are you telling me I have been ignorantly carrying this angst with the US cell phone industry for no reason?!?
Life seems so… pointless… now without that bitter hatred of their stupid policies to keep me warm at night. Maybe I shall go do something constructive with my life now.
Well that just transfers the puzzlement to the phone system as a whole. Do you really pay to receive a call on a land line?
How do the Japanese work their phones? AFAIK they use the same system of transmission as Europe does (GSM?) but from someone who came back from Japan not too long ago, I heard that Japanese phones don’t have SIM cards, true?
I believe the reason is a bit different:
- in a numbering scheme where mobile (cell) numbers are integrated into the normal area code/local number scheme, the caller cannot know beforehand if the number he calls is a mobile or landline.
- this means the calling party cannot be charged a higher rate for calling a mobile number than for calling a landline number in the same area code
- this means that if the price for a call to a mobile number is to be higher that for a call to a landline number, the additional cost must be charged to the party receiving the call (that party has chosen to have a mobile number while the calling party has not necessarily chosen to call a mobile number).
In contrast, in the European networks that I know of:
- the mobile (cell) networks have been assigned separate prefixes outside the area code system.
- hence, the calling party knows beforehand that they are calling a mobile number
- this means that the higher cost of a call to a mobile number can be charged to the caller, with no cost to the party receiving the call.