Quote:
Originally Posted by afv011
I wholeheartedly agree. If you want a free (or heavily discounted) phone, then you have to put up with the extra charges that the telcos will throw at you - your "free" phone is not free, you're just paying for it (several times over, by the way), through your 2 or 3 year contract (we have 3 year contracts in Canada). I personally pay for my phones upfront and then pick and choose the plan I like - no contract, no commitment, I'm free to go whenever I please. I'm currently paying $33.50 for unlimited NA calls, global text and unlimited data.
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I don't play in the subsidized phone market. Yes I have had them when a company paid for therm but I didn't deal with it personally and where I am now, we get an allowance for phones and it is up to the employee to get service. There are a few in sales and marketing where their phones are subsidized wholly, for these guys are the face of the company and need to look good. In engineering, we do get company notebooks with company air-cards.
But anyway, my point is that I am not really tuned into the way the contracts work. What was very surprising was when I recently found out that if you get say a $600 phone for $200 with a 2 year contract, then even after the 2 years is up, your monthly bill doesn't go down. You still pay that $20 or so each month that originally went to pay for the rest of the phone's cost. Of course you can get a new phone for another $200 but lots of times the phone you want hasn't come out yet or you don't have the money for a new one, and then your carrier gets the extra you are paying in every month.
What I am waiting for is Republic Wireless's new phones to come out which you will pay for up front and the get something like afv001 has, free calls, free text and unlimited data but for only $19 a month. I believe I will then trade in my $20 to $30 used "feature" phone and prepaid plan at 4 cent a minute.