AT&T, Others Fight Back Against Pre-Paid Phone Traffickers
FREE COUNTRY!
yes we are "free" country, but we have laws to fol...
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Are these guys making phones do illegal things? No, they're just unlocking them. I'm sick of getting jerked around by these money hogging companies. Especially when they tack on fees that cell phone employee's can't explain. (I'm looking at you, Sprint.)
Let me pick my phone, darnit.
But then again, most of them didn't make money either.
US/Canada = subsidized phones to lure you into a contract
The rest of the work: Allow unlocked phones - buyer beware.
You don't need an MVNO to make a profit. Why don't you just sell unlocked phones - it could be more profitable. Compete against the carriers to sell phones.
AT&T can lock the IMEI down if they want to.
Apparently there's a store in Vegas where you can buy unlocked phones. I think they're mostly used, not sure.
And unlocked phones being used by drug lords? So what. I'm not a drug lord, I want an unlocked phone. That's like Apple's DRM'ed music. It only hurts people that don't know how to get rid of the DRM. And it forces honest people who BUY their music legally to learn how to un-DRM music files.
I think if enough people are breaking the law, then the law needs change....(in some cases. I'm not opening up a huge can of worms here. No, marijuana consumption should not be legalized. That's a drug, not a cell phone. Please, no threads...
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Oh, so you think that if people start 'breaking the law' by running red lights, stop signs, etc.... you think it'd be a good idea to do away with traffic laws?
Sending them to other countries? Meh. I could care less.
running red lights: no stupid. that puts lives in danger. trafficking cell phones don't. unlocking cell phones don't. Stop being ignorant.
Anxiovert said:
You guys need to read the article at RCR. This is not about just the unlocking of Go Phones. It's about the smugling of AT&T phones to other countries.
Oh, so you think that if people start 'breaking the law' by running red lights, stop signs, etc.... you think it'd be a good idea to do away with traffic laws?
And whats the correlation between buying goPhone's, unlocking them and stealing Stop signs?
I guess that and unlocking goPhone's and being/supporting terrorism, drug dealing and human trafficking is the same thing?
But smugglers could just buy their phones at Walmart. They don't need them unlocked or through a reseller.
come on... so everyone in europe and the rest of the world is human trafficker and drug dealer... heck i preffer one of these phone to give away when i do not want to use my real phone..
If the purchase of the phone required an agreement to activate it on the seller's service for any length of time, THEN you would have a point, but we would also be talking about a different subject.
Remember that these phones are part of the company's business model and therefore are supposed to generate revenue for that company. Many companies subsidize the cost of the device (even in a prepaid situation) in the hopes that the long term revenue will help the profit margins.
Now I'm not going to say that the companies are losing money in general, just that there is not a lot of money in prepay for most companies. According to RCR last year, the average ...
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I may be guilty of saying "wholesale" rather than "sustainable" prices as the principle cutoff. It is possible to sell at wholesale, or even just over wholesale, and lose a lot of money money, although I am still pretty sure they are in fact below wholesale prices (going on both the prices themselves and the fact that it is worth buying one or two at a time at a store rather than from a wholesaler).
I could argue against your assertion about prices and simultaneous refusal to argue about it, but I will just say the carriers surely disagree with you, as they claim to be losing millions of dollars due to this su...
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they then post those losses in their tax statements for 1 reason- so they pay less taxes for the year (because they "lost" money)...
for example
DaimlerChrysler Makes $7.3 Billion In 2006, Chrysler Group Posted a Loss Of $1.5 Billion... (because health insurance went up for all of its employees)
its a loop whole to dodge democtrats raising
taxes on corporations (see michigans tax system and you'll understand)
I should call the IRS and say I lost tons of money last year cause I didn't feel like working a 40 hour week.
Hahhahaaa....
i think im going to call the IRS too!!
That's how it is. Plain and simple.
AT&T takes a loss on the prepaid phones because they are depending on revenue from prepaid airtime. If you get what you want you will end up paying way more for the handsets than they are selling them for now. Trust me, the system isn't broke so it doesn't need fixing.
It can't be both ways. Either a customer gets a low price on a locked handset or they pay the high price for an unlocked one.
I know I am going to take some heat here, but what I sense from you is a lot of consumer greed. you know wanting discounts you are not entitled to, subscribing to features you have no intention of keeping in order to get a lower handset price. Whatever happened to honor and integrity?
I'm an employee. I'm ALL for buying a handset outright, and I usually don't "unsubscribe" to features to get a lower price. Hell, I paid 180 for a friggin katana II.
I AM, however, an advocate against corporations, which are usually crooked.
If they're losing money, good. I think they're crooked anyway. Especially when a "cancellation fee" is in place. I think that's way crooked. I'm a consumer advocate. Not a corporate whore.
This forum is closed.