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Sprint Loses Early Termination Fee Case.

kdarling said:
I believe the government's biggest objection to current ETF's is that they don't bear any relationship to the subsidy.

In other words, ETF's should be different, depending on the phone price vs whatever you pay for it.

Verizon and ATT hoped to avoid federal regulation of ETFs by voluntarily making them prorated by months of service. Doesn't look like that'll work in the end.

Personally I think that if you bring your own phone, there should be no ETFs.
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Yup, we have them here. They are called simm only deals and they are 30 day rolling contracts. My brother has one on o2. £30 a month for 1200 minutes and 1000 texts. You can leave at any time giving 30 days notice.
The same contract on an 18 month with a free phone (not iphone and less minutes and texts) is £35 a month so an extra £5 ($10) a month.
I think that is relatively fair. If you supply your own phone you have no 18 month contract, cheaper line rental with more minutes and texts than the contract as they are not subsidizing your phone!
 
kdarling said:
I believe the government's biggest objection to current ETF's is that they don't bear any relationship to the subsidy.

In other words, ETF's should be different, depending on the phone price vs whatever you pay for it.

Verizon and ATT hoped to avoid federal regulation of ETFs by voluntarily making them prorated by months of service. Doesn't look like that'll work in the end.

Personally I think that if you bring your own phone, there should be no ETFs.
Click to expand...

Exactly. The carriers been saying all this time that contracts and ETFs are required because the of the subsidized phone. Well if you already have your own handset, why do you have to sign a contract or pay an ETF? That right there is proof that carriers argument is bogus.

Also, to all of you who think that the end of ETFs mean that handsets will be $399 and $499 are not thinking things through, and falling for the bull that the carriers are spewing. First of all, the market would adjust itself since the vast majority of people will not spend $399-$499 on a handset, no matter how nice it is. You would end up with a class of super cheap handsets that only offer basic features (which is what most people want anyways) and higher end models for the people who want the advanced features and can afford to pay in full.

Also, carriers can also can give you the option using your own handset, purchasing a handset in full, or charge you a monthly equipment fee, like the cable companies do (they don't make you sign for a contract for service). Fact of the matter is that companies like MetroPCS offer service with no contracts or ETF is proof that a contractless, ETFless model can work.

The only parties that would be hurt if the industry shifted over completely to a model with no contracts and ETFs would be the handset manufacturers (since the true cost of a handset will no longer be hidden and consumers will be much more dilligent about price shopping) and the carriers (since you are no longer bound by a contract). Overall customer service will improve because anyone can leave at anytime thus forcing the carriers to be more competitive with each other.
 
how would this affect me as I have sprint's evdo service for my macbook. I really don't need it anymore but, I have almost a year left on my contract. Since I'm going to migrate to the iphone 3g soon with data plan, I'd like to get rid of sprint's service. It's been slow lately and really annoying.
 
although i see why the ETF are there... i dont agree with how long a damn phone company has you for.

contracts should not be allowed to go over 1 year.... just like it was before... i dont know when they went to 2 years... but back in the day it was just 1.... and that is a lot more reasonable.
 
ejrizo said:
although i see why the ETF are there... i dont agree with how long a damn phone company has you for.

contracts should not be allowed to go over 1 year.... just like it was before... i dont know when they went to 2 years... but back in the day it was just 1.... and that is a lot more reasonable.
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I know. Now all they offer you is 2 years.
 
Had to chime in against the Anti-Sprint rhetoric in here.

Ive had them for 4+ years now and I love it.

I once asked for 100txts added to my plan (i was paying per at the time) and what the cost would be. The next day Im emailed that I have had "Unlimited Txting" added for free.

Freakin' free. And I didnt even really ask.

To me, thats a good company.

Now I txt all the time pushing 1500txts a month.

Everyone is going to have a bad experience with SOME company, if yours was Sprint, Im sorry.
 
so does this mean i can now dump sprint and switch to at&t without a an ETF? i want the iphone horribly :D
 
I have no problems with the contracts, as they are needed to get cheap phones. In 2004 I signed for 2yrs with cingular and got a free motorola mpx220 ($300 value). After a year I cancelled, paid the ETF and signed another 2yr contract with sprint and got the Treo 650 for $99($400 value). A yr later I cancelled my sprint contract paid the ETF and signed for 2yrs with t-mobile and got a Dash for free. Last month I cancelled my t-mobile contract but didnt have to pay the ETF( text message rate increase) and signed with ATT. Why sign the contract and whine about it later.
 
Sdashiki said:
Had to chime in against the Anti-Sprint rhetoric in here.

Ive had them for 4+ years now and I love it.

I once asked for 100txts added to my plan (i was paying per at the time) and what the cost would be. The next day Im emailed that I have had "Unlimited Txting" added for free.

Freakin' free. And I didnt even really ask.

To me, thats a good company.

Now I txt all the time pushing 1500txts a month.

Everyone is going to have a bad experience with SOME company, if yours was Sprint, Im sorry.
Click to expand...

Former Sprint user here, and my experience is similar to yours. All you have to do is say "my friend has [x feature] on his plan, I was wondering if I could have it too?" Most of the time they give it to you.
 
ETF’s is simply a way to extort $

I’m not sure how much it costs Palm, Blackberry, or any other company to make a cell phone, but it’s not much. Most of the parts and phones are manufactured overseas and then shipped back to the U.S. where we are charged at least a 1000% markup. If cell phone providers had better overall service, they would not have to worry that customers would want to leave. We are given a whopping 30 days to cancel our contracts without having to incur ETF’s. Problem is that we don’t usually find out what mess we’ve gotten ourselves into until AFTER the 30 days are up.

I have been with Sprint since May 2007 and as soon as I received my first bill – after the 30-day cancellation period – I realized there were problems. It took me 13 months and hours of being on hold to get things straightened out, however, I still cannot get them to send me a detailed invoice. Well, at least I don’t have to hear them constantly make excuses about their “ensemble” something-or-other anymore.

I purchased a basic cell phone to use when I was in Argentina last year. The phone cost $30 without a contract. The phone was comparable to a “free” cell phone that any carrier here would give you.

Also, if there is an ETF, why is it not prorated if one wishes to cancel service?
 
I'm all for the option of subsidized phones, and being able to commit myself to a contract for a nicer phone than I might ordinarily get but in today's world I feel like I don't have a choice simply because the unlocked phones are rediculously priced. ATT claims that a razr v3, the same phone that was released back in 2004, is worth $240 (I remember it being £700 when it came out - or approximately $1200ish). Like someone else was saying, if all phones were subsidized, that'd never happen; the choice between perhaps a $50 razr unsub or a $200 iphone, and perhaps having my own phone and getting more minutes would be great.

On a side note... A friend gave me an iphone 2g which I brought to the att store wanting to add to my plan and was told me that it'd extend my contract by two years. My friend paid $600 for this phone, which I'm going to assume is the unsubsidized price, but regardless if he chose to give it away, he's the one that's locked into a 2yr agreement, it made no sense that I would have to be as well for now possessing the phone.
 
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