Two year contracts needs to be phased out

[Intervenient]

Any thoughts on this? Now that I'm paying more attention to specs and speeds of different phones, it's hard to believe I had the iPhone 3G for two years. The tech world is constantly changing, so wouldn't a one year contract make more sense? The only other thing I can think of aside from that is making phones more affordable off contract.


Sorry if this was poorly worded.

 

[Hrethgir]

It would make more sense for us, the consumer, sure. But it wouldn't for the phone companies, they make a ton of money off 2 year contracts, and if you want to get a new phone after 1 year, then they make even more money from your Early Termination Fee. Why would they kill the goose that lays the golden eggs? The faster new phones come out, the more ETFs they collect, and since they all just jacked that fee up even more, they win. When I bought my 3Gs last summer, it was probably one of the best phones on the market. Now it's just an also-ran that needs the jailbreak on it just to try to keep even with my buddies DInc! Of course, on the flip side, when my contract ends next year and I can get a good phone (NOT Apple!), my buddies DInc will then be an antiquated dinosaur ready for the scrapheap of history, LOL!

 

[Member138406]

With Verizon you can upgrade yearly on the main line at 2 year price if you pay more then like 50 bucks a month. Which is nice..

But ideally for companies.. the two year model works. The phone price means very little, its about keeping you paying and active with the company for 2 years more then anything. It's also just how nice new things work in general.. you want, you pay!

 

[Intervenient]

With Verizon you can upgrade yearly on the main line at 2 year price if you pay more then like 50 bucks a month. Which is nice..

But ideally for companies.. the two year model works. The phone price means very little, its about keeping you paying and active with the company for 2 years more then anything. It's also just how nice new things work in general.. you want, you pay!

Oh wow. I did not know that about Verizon...that's a fairly generous offer. Con flabbit AT&T!

 

[Jammy]

Can't you buy a new handset and put your old sim card in it?

 

[IOWA]

Can't you buy a new handset and put your old sim card in it?

VZW/Sprint doesn't have SIM.

 

[Jammy]

VZW/Sprint doesn't have SIM.

I assumed that the OP was on AT&T because he had an iPhone.

 

[IOWA]

I assumed that the OP was on AT&T because he had an iPhone.

And you can swap phones any time with CDMA as well, takes all of five minutes with a computer.

 

[Anthony1]

Any thoughts on this? Now that I'm paying more attention to specs and speeds of different phones, it's hard to believe I had the iPhone 3G for two years. The tech world is constantly changing, so wouldn't a one year contract make more sense? The only other thing I can think of aside from that is making phones more affordable off contract.


Sorry if this was poorly worded.

When all's said and done there's nothing free and you tend to get what you pay for.

You can have whatever length contract you want, or even no contract at all (monthly rolling)....provided you're willing to pay for the phone up front. If you want an expensive phone 'on the cheap' then you're going to get locked in to a long contract, or a short expensive one, it's as simple as that.

No offense but your post seems to come off as you wanting something without having to pay for it.

 

[Akalatengo]

At the end of it, depend in how much cash you have. It is all good to get an unbranded device every so often, but, not everyone can do this that why the long term contract "free device".

 

[i VTAK]

Sprint has yearly upgrades if you're the primary line as well.