Google Charges ETF For Nexus One On Top of Carrier's 165
dumbnose sends along the news that Google is double-dipping on the Nexus One early termination fee. Ars sorts out the double dose of fine print from Google and T-Mobile. What it boils down to is, if you give up on your Nexus One between 14 days and 120 days after the sale, it will cost you $550: $350 to Google (automatically charged to the credit card you used to buy the phone) and $200 to T-Mobile. After 120 days the Google fee goes away and after 550 days the T-Mobile ETF begins prorating. A poster on Dave Farber's email list provides another perspective on the "restructuring of the handset premium."
ETF? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:that sort of makes sense (Score:3, Interesting)
And buy what as an alternative? (Score:2, Interesting)
See my problem with "don't buy it" in the cell phone market is that there aren't enough alternatives. Okay so I need a cell phone to do my job, and keep in touch with my family. Exactly what do I do? Buy one of those crappy PAYGO cell phones that break in 6 months, and has no features? How do I check my email and keep my calendar with one of those? We need OSes in the market like WebOS, the iPhone and Android, but in order to take advantage of them, yes the cell phone companies aren't competing to get my dollar, they are colluding to drive prices up while not improving their service at the same rate.
Every cell phone company is trying to pull bullshit because they all learned that a) the best way to make money is to try to either force people into a contract or try to trick them and b) the American government as it stands now simply is unwilling and incapable of properly regulating and policing them. We can't even get proper banking or health reform ion this country, cell phone reform on pricing is significantly further down the list. Telling me not to buy it when there are no choices for me is not a choice, it's basically telling me to find a job and a lifestyle that doesn't require a cell phone.