Hey. Legitimate question.
I WANT to understand and love prepaid. Everyone here that's NOT from the US pokes fun at us and our
overpriced service plans and how we're all so short-sighted as to "fall for" the subsidized phone. But I must be dense... I don't see any other LOGICAL option.
Currently, I'm on at&t.
I get the "high-end" iPhone every two years. My subsidized price is $399. I pay $39.99 for my voice and text. Then slap on another $30 for iPhone Data Plan. In summary, that's a total of $400 + $70/month.
Grand total of $2,080 every two years.
It seems to me that, if I were to go with Straight Talk, I'd be looking at $1000 for a carrier-unlocked "high-end" iPhone + $45/month.
That's a grand total of $2080 every two years.
(Wow... I didn't do the math until I typed it!!! That's kind of a funny coincidence.)
Beside the point that they are pretty much IDENTICAL in cost (although Finance people would say the at&t deal is "cheaper," given time-value-of-money arguments), there are other things that make me lean toward at&t, although some of these, admitedly, may be wrong/misguided:
* I get a discount for working at my company (not at&t, to be clear) that amounts to about $8/month
* I pre-order the phone and get it ON LAUNCH DAY; whereas I think that getting your hands on carrier-unlocked phones is more difficult???
* Even if I don't LIKE it, I at least UNDERSTAND at&t's data/throttling policy
* Is Straight Talk even offering 4G/LTE services? Or is their agreement with at&t always going to put them on a "second tier?"
So, why is it so DUMB-AMERICAN to fall for the subsidized phone? And please... this is a real question. This topic always comes up on MR. I've asked my palzzzzz to explain it. Nobody can. So now I'm "asking MR."
Thanks.