Comments on: Cell phone trafficking attracts national attention http://www.prepaidreviews.com/blog/prepaid-phones/cell-phone-trafficking-attracts-national-attention-35375/ Thu, 09 Feb 2012 06:13:29 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: Not So Sure http://www.prepaidreviews.com/blog/prepaid-phones/cell-phone-trafficking-attracts-national-attention-35375/comment-page-1/#comment-24888 Not So Sure Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:36:10 +0000 http://www.prepaidreviews.com/blog/?p=1103#comment-24888 I think the corporate argument that it means the end of subsidies is nothing but smokescreen. Getting customers locked into one carrier is so lucrative (that is to say, so screws the customer over time), that they can give the hardware away. Tracfone and others are doing everthing they can to preserve the "walled-garden" business plan, where they control the devices, content, and capabilites of your cellphone, locking to customer into their business. They abhore the idea of customers getting and doing what they want with the phones they own. Criminalizing the unlocking of phones or purchase of phones for anything the customer wants to do with them is only designed to create a lucrative business plan for the carriers, where true fairness and law should not allow them one. (Subsidizing prepaid phones is a bad business plan, we shouldn't criminalize conduct that should be legal to make the business work.) I think the corporate argument that it means the end of subsidies is nothing but smokescreen. Getting customers locked into one carrier is so lucrative (that is to say, so screws the customer over time), that they can give the hardware away. Tracfone and others are doing everthing they can to preserve the “walled-garden” business plan, where they control the devices, content, and capabilites of your cellphone, locking to customer into their business. They abhore the idea of customers getting and doing what they want with the phones they own. Criminalizing the unlocking of phones or purchase of phones for anything the customer wants to do with them is only designed to create a lucrative business plan for the carriers, where true fairness and law should not allow them one. (Subsidizing prepaid phones is a bad business plan, we shouldn’t criminalize conduct that should be legal to make the business work.)

]]> By: PrepaidWirelessGuy http://www.prepaidreviews.com/blog/prepaid-phones/cell-phone-trafficking-attracts-national-attention-35375/comment-page-1/#comment-24436 PrepaidWirelessGuy Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:16:11 +0000 http://www.prepaidreviews.com/blog/?p=1103#comment-24436 Definitely a major concern, and one that I don't believe consumers have had the chance to understand. While carriers have a lot of areas in which they can improve, they're not out there to rip off customers, and phone subsidies are a real cost. Another angle here are distributors who sell phones for parts, or trans-ship overseas where there are compatible networks. Cheers, PrepaidWirelessGuy www.prepaid-wireless-guide.com Definitely a major concern, and one that I don’t believe consumers have had the chance to understand. While carriers have a lot of areas in which they can improve, they’re not out there to rip off customers, and phone subsidies are a real cost. Another angle here are distributors who sell phones for parts, or trans-ship overseas where there are compatible networks.

Cheers,
PrepaidWirelessGuy
http://www.prepaid-wireless-guide.com

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