For many years now I've believed that the best route would be to have a subsidy option (though it you read into my comments over time, you'll find that I support eliminating the subsidy altogether).

My thought was to subsidize phones the way we did about give years ago for non-data requirements, or subsidize as it is today with data requirement.

Let's use the Droid as an example.

Full retail $569.99.

Data subsidy: $569.99 - $270 subsidy - $100 manufacturer/carrier rebate = $199.99

Non-data subsidy: $569.99 - $120 subsidy - $50 manufacturer/carrier rebate = $399.99

Before the iPhone changed the industry, Verizon used to subsidize every phone, simple or smart, exactly $120 (unless there was a special sale or BOGO offer) before a $50 rebate (there were few $100 rebates back in the day). People accepted this just fine for years with few gripes. Of course, back in the day Verizon charged $44.99 for unlimited data, but I'm sure no one here would want to back to that one.