http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/01/07/could-verizon-att-follow-t-mobile-in-ending-subsidies/
Could Verizon, AT&T Follow T-Mobile in Ending Subsidies?
All the FCC has to do is mandate that all phone contracts will be split into two like it is done in Germany.
splitting the contract in two, so that one part of the monthly charge is explicitly paying off the handset, and the other representing the service charge.
Could Verizon, AT&T Follow T-Mobile in Ending Subsidies?
Last month Deutsche Telekom AG's DTE.XE +0.57% T-Mobile USA said it would completely stop subsidizing phones in 2013, instead offering plans that essentially allow for interest-free financing.
“That is a great thing,” Verizon Communications Inc. VZ +0.88% Chief Executive Lowell McAdam said in an interview at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. He joked that Verizon would support U.S. regulators in banning phone subsidies.
Although he likes the idea of ending subsidies, he questioned whether U.S. customers are ready for that type of shift because they have been conditioned to getting lower-cost phones for so long.
Verizon “could move to that very quickly” if people wanted it, he said.
AT&T T +0.45% Mobility Chief Executive Ralph de la Vega said Monday the company is watching the T-Mobile strategy, and AT&T could make a similar move if it becomes popular, but the company isn’t focused on the issue.
All the FCC has to do is mandate that all phone contracts will be split into two like it is done in Germany.
splitting the contract in two, so that one part of the monthly charge is explicitly paying off the handset, and the other representing the service charge.