

T-Mobile Breaks Free of the Cellphone Carrier Conspiracy - seangransee
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/04/technology/personaltech/t-mobile-breaks-free-of-cellphone-contracts-and-penalties.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

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jerrya
David Pogue writes, _When you buy a cellphone — an iPhone or Android phone,
let’s say — you pay $200. Now, the real price for that sophisticated piece of
electronics is around $600._

Because of the subsidies, we actually don't know what the _real_ price of that
piece of electronics is. There's a very good chance the subsidies themselves
are there to increase the price out the door of that piece of electronics.

In a no subsidy free market, who knows, while MSRP of a cellphone might be
$600, the _real_ price might turn out to be $450 or so.

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betaclass
It's important to realize that if AT&T had been able to buy up T-Mobile, this
never would have happened.

Useful disruptions are less likely when we have too few companies in a given
market.

Note: OfficeMax and Office Depot are trying to merge.

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hyuuu
metropcs has been doing this for ages.

