Let's clear something up, some basic maths for you

[FreakinEurekan]

Am I the that pictured you saying that with a fake Texas accent, and threw in you saying "pardner" a couple times...?

Nope:

 

[HitchHykr]

Well the door is open to some of you fine American entrepreneurs. All you need is a few billion dollars and you can start up a telecommunications company that offers SIM only deals, there's obviously huge untapped potential there.

I can't believe the telecoms companies are allowed to operate in such a manner.

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You won't regret it, as long as you don't live up North.

We should make a distinction between cell companies that offer the iPhone and cell companies in general. There are plenty of companies offering pre-paid plans. Virgin Mobile for example, offers a plan for $35 for unlimited date/text and 300 minutes.

The "anti-competitiveness" comes from Apple's restriction on what companies can offer the iPhone on their networks.

 

[Ugg]

For those in the UK, the best deal still has to be buying unlocked and using a GIFFGAFF (O2 network) sim only. 300 minutes, unlimited text and unlimited data for £10 month.

.

Americans have no idea how much they're getting screwed by the mobile phone operators.

The worst part is, AT&T won't even unlock our iPhones *after* we have completed our contracts and paid off the device. Honestly, why won't they do that? It's my phone, I should be able to use it how I want. Also, not that it should matter, but there are only 2 major GSM carriers here (AT&T and T-Mobile) with a few regional carriers. I don't know why they are so scared to unlock phones.

It's almost as though the US mobile carriers are turning into some kind of communist cabal.

Aaand.... that is exactly why AT&T should not acquire T-Mobile.
I think I read somewhere that AT&T only wanted to offer the highest (and most expensive) messaging plan available because "that's what most people use ... so the cheaper plans aren't necessary"

ATT should have been slapped down immediately when they made their offer. Why anyone thinks such a merger would be a good idea is beyond me.

The system in the USA isn't all bad: It drives technology forward, because users have no incentive to hang onto older hardware; Older handsets have a high resale value largely due to overseas markets where the system is different.

That's a bunch of BS. Americans have never 'hung onto' old tech. They certainly don't need monopolies to make them get rid of the old stuff faster.