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Originally Posted by ilovejedd
And isn't that how it works out eventually? Carriers sell their souls to Apple and in turn, the consumers sell their souls to the carrier in order to get the "iconic" iPhone.
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To some extent, sure. The difference is that Apple doesn't allow the carriers to put their own non-removable apps on the phone, and that updates come directly from Apple and don't have to be filtered through the carrier.
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The postpaid plans are overpriced simply because the carriers include the cost of phone subsidies in the monthly tariffs. If phone exclusivity deals weren't part of the picture, then you're more likely to see carriers competing on price and quality of service. This isn't capitalism - it's an oligopoly.
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But the prices *aren't* overpriced if you use the subsidy, which is $450. (Or aren't overpriced compared to pay-as-you-go plans, which is, of course, a different matter). And again, the $55/month AT&T smartphone plan (450 minutes/200 MB data) doesn't strike me as being particularly worse than paying $100/month for 1000 minutes prepaid. Particularly with the subsidy.
Prepaid data packages are roughly 2-4x as expensive for prepaid - i.e., $15/month gives you 100MB prepaid vs. 200MB on contract; $25/month gives you 500MB prepaid vs. 2GB on contract.
So I don't think that you can universally state that PAYG is the better option; it really depends on how much you use your phone. If you use your phone a lot, I don't think it's a better deal; if you use it very infrequently (especially without data), I think it clearly is a better deal.
I'm not really convinced that we have an oligopoly, either. In my market, I can choose from 4 major carriers (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile), and I've had contracts with all but Sprint. I think that's a decent amount of competition (much better than cable), particularly given number portability, and I don't think it would change much if we had 6 competitors. Or 10. I suppose things might change if we had some sort of different regulatory scheme.