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AT&T Defends Itself Against Government Review

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I'm served by 3 carriers? Or 6 even?

HumanStudios

Jul 8, 2009, 9:18 PM
Um... what kind of BS statement is that. I'm taking it literally, so if someone wants to look into what he could possibly actually mean, I'm open to suggestions, cause we all know that's a load of gigantic BS. Most people have 1 phone/carrier, but some business people have 2... but 3? Or even 6? WTF.
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murmermer

Jul 8, 2009, 10:36 PM
He means people have the option to choose one of any number of cellphone providers in any given area. There is noway AT&T is doing anything wrong, every prided offers it's "exclusive phone"

Sprint=Pre
T-mobile= G1 / myphone
Verizon= Storm
AT&T= iPhone

all of these phones are leading the way in how people use their handsets. I am posting this from my iPhone!

If the senate continues it's investigation it will only hurt the consumer by causing the wireless providers to raise prices to fight the FCC in a legal battle. Not to mention how samsung, lg, and HTC will react when they have to make GSM and CDMA model of every phone they want to sell here. I hope everyone wants to pay 2-3 times as much for a phone because that's what's g...
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Azeron

Jul 9, 2009, 8:30 AM
It's not about forcing a manufacturer to produce a GSM variant of a CDMA phone or vice versa but not allowing RIM for instance to manufacture the Storm and not offer it to any CDMA carrier or the Bold and not offer it to any GSM carrier.
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Menno

Jul 9, 2009, 9:52 AM
Yes, because it would be so easy for them to make up the RD money carriers pay for these exclusive phones. RIM might be able to, at the cost of signifigantly increasing the costs of their phones at launch, but companies like APPLE and PALM more than likely couldn't.

Would you pay $800 for an unlocked storm/bold that you could use on any network? what about $1000 for the iphone?

If you want any phone any network, prices will increase, and companies will stop subsidizing phones because of how easily they could be unlocked.
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LatinoGeek

Jul 9, 2009, 10:23 AM
I disagree with you.

Using Apple as an example, (I don't feel like looking up the numbers for RIM but they're out there,) According to Businessweek, It costs $178.96 to build the iPhone 3GS, while the iPhone 3G costs $174.33. Assuming a (generous) profit margin of 60% that's $286.336 and $278.928 for the 3GS and 3G respectively. The $800 and $1000 price you're suggesting is gouging the customer. Competition between the Device makers would keep costs down. The carriers add little to no value to this and exclusivity only serves to limit customers options.

The Carriers are looking for ways to be more than the "dumb pipes" that they are supposed to be. Device exclusivity is one way they do this. Ringtone sales is another. Verizon d...
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phonesales83

Jul 9, 2009, 10:39 AM
You know I would like you to know it was your comment and this discussion that finally pushed me to sign up on here. Your half truths are mind blowing. First of all you clearly dont understand the costs of doing business. You have to have workers, buildings, marketing, and utilities. Making a product with a 60% profit margin seems high only because you havent ran a business. Talk to any small business owner! Which is why the majority fail in the first 5 yrs.(that and poor planning) As far as the "Verizon by adopting CMDA" comment goes... Cmda is a stronger signal with more bandwidth, thats why they do it! Do you really think that the GSM carriers just dont have that many towers in the US? (please spare me the CDMA is a flawed technology comm...
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Menno

Jul 9, 2009, 10:50 AM
Your numbers do not include Research and Development costs, marketing costs, the cost of creating/renting/purchasing manufacturing centers.

All that cost includes is the cost of the materials and the labor.

The second phone costs "174.33" The first phone cost millions.


Verizon opted for CDMA because of the benefits it gave them (use less towers to support a higher volume, more security for the phones, etc.)
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CellStudent

Jul 9, 2009, 1:39 PM
Dear God... if Kyocera can fund manufacturing costs with their POS hardware for so many years, how on earth could Apple, Google or Microsoft run into manufacturing problems?
R&D is important, too. But nowhere near the hurdle you've blown it up to be. Its absolutely no different then pharacuitical company getting a new product on the market, and a whole lot less expensive!
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Menno

Jul 9, 2009, 1:52 PM
Kyocera also has been running for years, and had the benefit of exclusive deals to launch it.

For older companies the transition is possible, but for newer companes (say apple if they didn't launch the iphone yet) that is a heck of a lot of money to sink into a product where no one is guaranteeing you'll sell enough to compensate for the cost. Remember, before the iphone, apple was just a computer company that made MP3 players. They developed a whole new OS, spent a ton of money working on the screen, and entered a market they had no previous history in. It's a pretty big barrier to entry. Yes, apple and google and microsoft have the money to fund it, but would they if they didn't have a carrier who had a vested interest in seeing the...
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murmermer

Jul 10, 2009, 12:26 PM
who are you to decide how much Apple should charge for the iPhone?
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jskrenes

Jul 9, 2009, 6:17 AM
Every state is required to have at least two primary service providers, usually one of the majors like ATT, VZW, Sprint, TMob, etc. In many areas there are more smaller carriers like MetroPCS, Long Lines, Cricket, Virgin, Boost, etc.
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mosherkl

Jul 9, 2009, 11:54 AM
He means that most people have a choice between at least 3 carriers to provide them service, not they have service WITH at least 3 carriers.
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Menno

Jul 9, 2009, 11:56 AM
Lets take that rural county I have my current store in.

We have:
--Verizon (the only company that bothered putting 3g here)
--ATT (nearest corporate store, still on EDGE though)
--IMMIX (a local GSM carrier that roams off of the ATT towers they haven't bought yet)
--Sprint/nextel (spotty at best, basically only working on the highway)
--Tmobile (soon, they are working on putting in towers this year/next year)

That is 5 different carriers available to a county over one hour from the closest thing that could be called a city. This isn't even counting the prepay options you can get (tracfone, virgin, etc)

Cities will have even more options, as well as suburbs.
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sunshinegirl

Jul 9, 2009, 4:33 PM
You must live near me. I know Immix can't survive to far from me.
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Menno

Jul 9, 2009, 5:59 PM
Schuylkill county
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sunshinegirl

Jul 11, 2009, 9:10 AM
I'm in Northumberland county. We are close. 🙂
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Menno

Jul 11, 2009, 12:01 PM
I'm moving to Wilkes Barre area soon (Dallas) should be an interesting change.
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