Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

kylera

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Dec 5, 2010
1,195
27
Seoul
There's a lot of upheaval here in Korea over cellphone purchasing. Here, the only cellphone you can buy off contract is the iPhone exclusively from the Apple store. Otherwise, you have to get it on a subsidized two-year contract, and subsidies only amount to up to $200 or so, and that too if you sign up for the priciest plan at $100 a month.

The news channels here said that for the iPhone 6/6s in the US, you just pay $99/$199/$299 up front and you can go with any plan of choice. Is that true? Or how much info was omitted?
 
You can go with any plan as long as it has voice and data, and costs you at least $60 a month. They won't let you get a two year plan otherwise.

If AT&T finds you using a smartphone without a data plan, they will automatically add it into your bill, even if you're not using it.
 
Wow. Just wow. How is that sort of corrupt practice not illegal?

Why would that be considered illegal, a carrier requiring a data plan for a smart phone? Its all in the agreement you sign or am I misunderstanding something
 
Wow. Just wow. How is that sort of corrupt practice not illegal?

Why would that be considered illegal, a carrier requiring a data plan for a smart phone? Its all in the agreement you sign or am I misunderstanding something

Yeah. It would be in the terms of service. And the way they'd find out is via the IMEI of the device which is specific to the phone model I think?
 
Here in China you can buy whatever phone with whatever plan. Even getting a phone from a different region of the world is an easy feat (e.g. Japanese or American model iPhones).
 
Here in China you can buy whatever phone with whatever plan. Even getting a phone from a different region of the world is an easy feat (e.g. Japanese or American model iPhones).
Same in Germany.

You can either get a phone with a contract over 2 years. This model is called "credit" and the monthly cost is devided into paying off your phone + the cost for calls and other services.

Or you can just buy a phone seperately cash or on credit and buy any contract seperately. Or just use anonymous prepaid cards.

If you shop around a bit the 2 year contract is usually the best option if you want an iPhone. For example one year ago the iPhone 5s was available for a one time fee of €50 and unlimited, free calls, messages and internet (LTE only up to 250mb per month) for €30 a month.
 
Last edited:
Here in China you can buy whatever phone with whatever plan. Even getting a phone from a different region of the world is an easy feat (e.g. Japanese or American model iPhones).

It's just the same here in the Netherlands.

A two year contract with a iPhone is about €48 per month.

I should have mentioned that you had to pay 50% of the cost of the iPhone, and then €48 per month this gives 200 minutes unlimited SMS and 2GB at 4G
 
Last edited:
I'd have to research this, but my impression with Sprint has this new plan with a 2 year contract where you pay nothing for the iphone 6 up front. I think it's called "easy pay". As I recall, there was no catch and the monthly cost of the plan is slightly less than the old plan (2 person family, corporate rate-$135 a month). I believe this plan reflects competition from the lower cost companies.
 
The news channels here said that for the iPhone 6/6s in the US, you just pay $99/$199/$299 up front and you can go with any plan of choice. Is that true? Or how much info was omitted?

You can do that, but then your monthly plan is $20-30/month higher than it would be if you bought your own iPhone and brought it to the carrier. It's a device subsidy and the flagship phones are highly subsidized here.

More carriers are going for partial or no subsidies these days, though. T-Mobile stopped subsidized contracts and all prepaid carriers haven't had them for years.

Since January 2011 I've been on Virgin Mobile (Sprint based) and now Cricket (AT&T based). I have to pay the full price of the phone - I paid $199 and $50 for two low-mid range devices (at the time) out of pocket. Then I paid $35-40/month for 300 mins talk, unlimited text and data on VM, which is a steal in the US. Most recently, I bought a Moto G with LTE for $199 off Amazon. I now pay $35/month for unlimited talk, text, and 1GB of LTE data for $35/month (with $5 autopay credit) on Cricket. There's unlimited data, but they supposedly throttle you after 1GB.

The vast majority of consumers are on two year contracts with subsidized phones though.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.