Android News
How satisfied are you with U.S. handset carrier competition?
June 16, 2009 | by Andrew Kameka
Android News
Four U.S. Senators have asked the FCC to explore how carrier-exclusivity affects cell phone choice among consumers. Mr. Senators, let me you save you and the FCC a lot of time and money – of course it affects consumer choice!
T-Mobile would not have as many people purchasing the G1 if it were available on another network. AT&T would not have such a large consumer base were it not for their iPhone exclusivity. The same goes for the new Sprint subscribers who jumped ship to get the Palm Pre. Smartphone purchasers are attracted to phones first, not carriers, so having a handset tied to one network is going to affect consumer choice in the most obvious fashion.
How happy are you about cell phone competition? Would you be on T-Mobile if you could have a G1 on AT&T, Sprint, or Verizon? What about smaller carriers in your area?
Personally, I would not have gotten the G1 had it been on Sprint’s network (Sprint’s lack of GSM obviously makes this a non-issue). Signal strength at my home, job, and school were horrible when I was a Sprint subscriber, so I’d have been reluctant to sign-up with them again. (*Carrier performance varies greatly by market and area)
The U.S. Court of Appeals have found that exclusivity harms competition, but I’m not sure the FCC will reach the same conclusion. I wouldn’t be surprised if they responded with something along the lines of, “Yes, exclusivity affects consumer choice, but there are enough alternatives to not warrant us getting involved.”
The argument will be that each carrier has its own comparable smartphone, thus consumers have many choices. As Android continues to infiltrate more carriers in more devices, that statement will have even more weight considering Blackberry, Windows Mobile, and allegedly Palm’s webOS are available across platforms.
If the U.S. government really wants to explore consumer choice, do something about the early termination fees or upgrade costs that make getting the a new phone more challenging for consumers.
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I was a long time Sprint subscriber and I loved their service. If the G1 would have been available on Sprint, I wold have never left. I only ditched them to get my beloved Android, and I am not going back until they do get one… and a good one at that. *cough* HTC Dream/ Magic or Samsung anything… *cough*
Seriously though, T-mobile's service where I live and work (LA) is terrible! I work near LAX and Im on Edge network. my 3G is spotty at my place and my girlfriend's place… I miss my Sprint coverage.
I agree with your statement about deal with the upgrade and early termination costs. There are plently of alternatives available. I had ATT/Cingular for 10 years and I hated them so when my contract was over I looked at each of the Carriers. I wanted the Google phone but my wife hated Tmobile due to a bad experience 5 years ago.
Well after putting each company into a list of Pros/cons. Tmobile and Sprint were tied, until I caught the Salesperson at Sprint in a lie. I showed him how I know he was lying and left. Walked right to TMobile the salesperson was well informed and honest and I got my G1.
Long story short, sometimes there are many reasons why we chose our carrier and Smartphone.
The US cell phone service providers are basically a cartel. When there were seven major companies involved there was competition. Now that there are four companies, competition is more of an illusion than a reality. Note that prices for minutes have been going up steadily since the last big round of mergers in the industry several years ago. Before that, prices for minutes were steadily going down. That's a clue right there.
The whole concept of buying a new phone from a carrier at a discount is ridiculously unfair. The people who don't buy expensive new phones pay the same amount for minutes as the people who do buy them. Money is being taken from the charges for minutes of those who have older and cheaper phones and used to pay for expensive new phones for new customers.
If phone purchases were completely separate from purchases of minutes the prices for minutes would be lower, right? Companies would still make a profit because they wouldn't have to pay for phones from the money they collect for minutes. If the high prices of phones scared people away the companies could give loans to their customers for new phones. That way on the bill everyone would know exactly what they were paying for, their minutes or their phone.
I'm convinced T-Mobile stands for Thug-Mobile. Every gangsta has a sidekick or now a G1. I'm on Sprint with a dumbphone waiting for the perfect smartphone. I've been waiting for a year since my contract expired and I hope there are some sweet Android phones on the horizon. I was really disappointed that Samsung's announcement the other didn't feature Android. I h8 that phones are tied to carriers! Really decreases the variety and competition they have in other countries. Then again I don't trust Congress to do shit except vote themselves a pay raise.