AT&T raising their early termination fee

I can not wait to dump AT$T when our contract is up. Their 3G coverage is laughable. Buh bye AT$T hello Verizon!

 

Then why (like Verizon) does it only apply to smartphones and not equally across all types of phones?

It's no coincidence both Verizon and AT&T announced these increases shortly before a "high visibility" phone was to be released. They don't like the fact a person is buying 2,3 or 4 or more iPhones for $300 each on a $10/month add-a-line, then canceling the line after 31 days then selling the phone on eBay for $1000 to some guy on another carrier or to an existing customer and not requiring a new contract. They lose the subsidy and they lose the monthly line and data fees. They figure the higher ETF will reduce (certainly not stop) that churn. Verizon so much as came out and said that when they raised their fee just before the Incredible was released.

Also, a person is more likely to cancel and go elsewhere for a newer/better phone for a $100 ETF after a year rather than a $200 one.

They should go back to the old way. Full price for phones and no contract. Doing that would force to actually try to provide good service if they want to keep you. The iPhone would probably end up around $400-500 (like the original unsubsidized one did) or less and actually use "quality service" as a way to keep down their churn.

 

Because Verizon and ATT lose money when they sell you a discounted smartphone which then ends up on ebay after the contract is cancelled. Even with the higher ETF they barely break even but on the cheaper dumb phones they can break even with the lower ETF. This is all about discouraging the resale for profit of their subsidized phones.

 

not quite sure what you expect to gain - same etf of smart phones, same required data plan for smart phones.

We have plans with all the tier 1/2 providers, we issue phones depending on the end users location - ALL providers have coverage problems in areas.

Other intreresting thing - our call center has 2 people dedicated to tracking "dropped calls" that can be proven as one and not just a end users claiming they where dropped when they got tired of waiting in the service queue. Outr primary coverage area is the midwestern section of the US, on a average week the number of verifiable drops are due to cell phones, the drop rate for verizon and sprint cell numbers is 3 times what the drop rate for a tt cell number is, when you go down to the tier3 and lower providers the drop rate goes from 3 times to 10 times the amount. Interesting set of numbers - and this is on a average of 9000 calls per week

 

would never work - 99 percent of the people would NOT pay full price for a phone. Iphone price would be a lot more the 400-500 that you claim - current price is 600-700, really doubt that anyone would fork over that kind of money up front - especially in today's economy.

 

Ok, I with you now. And you're right. It does none of that. I have two things about the iPhone I would change and #1 would be fix the email client. I use it mainly to keep up and try to get back to my desktop to send any important emails. The other would be to fix the SMS client. If I sent a message to 2 people, it basically sends to each one as an individual, so you can't have a group discussion.

 

AT&T's coverage, and 3G coverage, where I live is great. But we visited some friends in AZ last summer and their AT&T coverage was horrible. They live just 15 minutes north of downtown Phoenix.

So alot of times it depends on where you live. My AT&T is the successor to the old Cellular One, which was the original cellular carrier in my area, so they had the most towers to begin with. Verizon has been cobled together of the old Alltel and a couple of other local providers and have decent coverage, but not anywhere near what AT&T has.

 

No, but 70% would. Besides, Apple fans ... you gotta be kidding. They'd pay $100 for an empty box. Besides, if the Nexus 1 with no advertising and no retail outlets and no carrier behind them and little knowledge it even exists could sell sell as many as they did for $530 you can be sure an iPhone would as well with Apple & AT&T's advertising power. iPhones probably cost $39 to manufacture with the slave labor they use in China.

 

1 million overrated ipads sold would disagree with the economy statement. I have the means but no desire to buy one. I've played with one for a bit, don't like it. After using it I see it as a device that replaces nothing - but costs at least $500 and selling rather well so there are people who can afford it and will buy it.

In my opinion, a phone that does more than a heavy tablet is worth more, and the droid, nexus one, iphones would all sell good if there were no fees. Not as well as they do now but they would sell.

We have people who buy an iphone on contract, turn around sell it on ebay, then buy a nexus one off contract and break even, because they stay with AT&T. ETF is not going to affect that practice.

DirecTV did fine when we all had to buy our hardware up front. They did much better when they went to contract pricing. I suspect the same thing applies to the cell phone industry.

 

It definitely depends on your area. That is why I find the Cell Carrier wars so funny.

 

In our area, Verizon has the best coverage. My "kids" all have AT&T. They can't use their iPhones or other AT&T phones at our house. The oldest can't get a usable signal at his home or his work down in Marin County across the Golden Gate bridge from San Francisco. At our other granddaughters home in Marin, there is not usable AT&T signal. Verizon has both voice and 3G saturation at all these locations.

When I bought a 3G MiFi 2200 from Verizon to use with our iPads they all told me how expensive monthly service was compared to the AT&T 3G iPad. I said, yeah, and we could not be able to use it here and not be able to use it when we visit either granddaughter. That's a heck of a bargain.:sure:

Of course, both Verizon and AT&T are an order of magnitude better than Sprint, the choice of Amazon for the Kindle. I pointed this out to Amazon the moment they announced their choice and noting that since you couldn't get a Kindle without the 3G hardware for less money they just chose to abandon one regular Amazon customer who would have bought two.:nono:

Hence, we now have two iPads with the free Kindle App without having paid a dime for useless built-in hardware.

I've never really understood this approach of building the service into the hardware. It would be like HP or Dell only offering computers that worked with Comcast as your ISP. Sure, with a cell phone, but when the cell phone function became only one function among many built into the device?

 

I still answered Mike's question I believe, this is NOT going to be a way for ATT to discourage upgrading your phone (within their service). It is to discourage people from buying their phones at a reduced cost and selling it on eBay and such.

This isn't going to stop people from getting an iPhone 4.0 for 299.99...then having that for a year, then upgrading to a new Android phone for like 499.99 because you didn't wait the 'prerequisite 18 months to get the reduced cost at 299.99.

ATT, I'm pretty sure, isn't telling everyone, that if you want to upgrade your phone before your 2-year contract is up you have to pay an additional 300+ dollars to the cost of the phone....

From what Mike said, I took it that he thought he would be 'punished' even more for wanting to upgrade his phone through ATT, which if I'm not mistaken is NOT the case...


And it applies pretty much only to smart phones because those are the most popular phones on the market and what everyone clamors for. That just makes sense.

 

I expect to gain a smart phone that I can actually use in my home town. AT$T's crappy Edge network just doesn't cut it. My Verizon friends enjoy 3G in our area. Said it once and I'll say it again. Mmmmmm buh bye AT$T... hello Verizon!

 

Everyone's mileage will vary. AT$T's 3G coverage is terrible where I live. Verizon's 3G service is stellar here.

 

We're in that big white blob in Southern Nevada for Verizon here in Pahrump. Both hubby and I are out of contract and have been with AT&T for 15 years (yes, we've done the carousel ride to Cingular and back again too)....... We have 3G with AT&T even right out here, just zero coverage at the top of the pass (the SR-160 into Vegas at 5,000ft+) which is no bother as when you've gone up you have to come down and service resumes.

So we're in a quandry as hubby's ancient Motorola V551 is about to give up the ghost. I have an unlocked LG Incite. It sucks.

Do we:

Go to AT&T this week and try to negotiate 2 x discounted iPhone 3GS 16gb (even refurbed) for less than $149 each or so...

Wait for iPhone HD (or whatever it's going to be called)

Jump to Sprint

Jump to T-Mobile

Jump to Verizon for the Droid Incredible and keep fingers crossed that eventually they will cover us.

Comments & suggestions welcome!

 

I don;t really have a huge problem with the ETF or even this increase. I do think it should straight line down to $0 in month 23 instead of being $100 still and they really should give you a cheaper rate off contract or if you have your own phone with no subsidy.

I also don't really love the fact that instead of improving service to keep customers, ATT is trying to lock people in more, but I know the ETF is much more than that also as pointed out.

 

I hear Wal-Mart is selling 16gb 3gs's for $100.

 

which eer has the best coverage for what you need, this is exactly the reason I carry cell phones from each of the tier 1/2 providers that we have accounts with so I have the best chance of reception for calls no matter were I travel.

Gets expensive for smart phones + mandatory data plans, but still a small price to pay to make sur I am contact with my business.