Why was the news/media so misleading about phone prices?

[Chiropteran]

I was reading an article about using the Iphone 5 on t-mobile, and it talks about how you need to pay the "steep" no-contract price for the phone. Never mind the fact that buying the phone on contract costs 2-3 times as much overall.

I mean, you don't see furniture articles talk about the "steep" price of a $400 sofa and implying that renting one for $50/month is a better deal, do they?

The news and media should inform readers, not put out misleading information. Those "steep" no contract prices + prepaid plans are almost universally a better deal than signing up for a contract.

 

[gorcorps]

I was reading an article about using the Iphone 5 on t-mobile, and it talks about how you need to pay the "steep" no-contract price for the phone. Never mind the fact that buying the phone on contract costs 2-3 times as much overall.

I mean, you don't see furniture articles talk about the "steep" price of a $400 sofa and implying that renting one for $50/month is a better deal, do they?

The news and media should inform readers, not put out misleading information. Those "steep" no contract prices + prepaid plans are almost universally a better deal than signing up for a contract.

Well, because what you're saying is just as misleading. For most of the carriers the non-contract and contract price is the same... the only difference is you can leave at any time without penalty. If you're not one to switch carriers then getting a subsidized phone on contract is cheaper because you'd be paying that monthly payment anyway.

You mention the prepaid plans, which can indeed be cheaper for a lot of people. But that's not comparing apples to apples. Support might not be the same, coverage may differ, might not offer enough texts or minutes, etc. So in the comparison of the same exact plan on the same exact network, not getting a subsidized phone does indeed feel steep when you're going to be on that plan for 2 years anyway.

 

[Oyeve]

Well, tmo doesnt want to spend a billion bucks for the right to sell ip5 like sprint did with the 4s. Hell, I bet sprint is still paying $$$ for that.

 

[Deeko]

Its inane when people try to add the cost of the service to the cost of the phone, because most people will have the service regardless of what phone they have, making the phone price the differentiator. Yes, there are cheaper plans out there, but again, that's a separate discussion from the phone itself. Most people don't change carriers when they change phones. And even if they do, there are differences between different carriers and plans, especially prepaid. It isn't a 1:1 change.

 

[Chiropteran]

Its inane when people try to add the cost of the service to the cost of the phone, because most people will have the service regardless of what phone they have, making the phone price the differentiator. Yes, there are cheaper plans out there, but again, that's a separate discussion from the phone itself. Most people don't change carriers when they change phones. And even if they do, there are differences between different carriers and plans, especially prepaid. It isn't a 1:1 change.

Nonsense. The cost of service with a prepaid plan is universally cheaper than the SAME service on a postpaid 2 year contract.

Compare sprint and virgin mobile. Same network, virgin mobile plans are much much cheaper. Compare t-mobile prepaid and t-mobile regular 2 year contract prices.

The cheaper plans are unavailable when you are on contract, and a plan that saves you $50/month for the same service is going to save you more overall than the "steep" price of a no-commitment phone.

 

[Deeko]

Nonsense. The cost of service with a prepaid plan is universally cheaper than the SAME service on a postpaid 2 year contract.

Compare sprint and virgin mobile. Same network, virgin mobile plans are much much cheaper. Compare t-mobile prepaid and t-mobile regular 2 year contract prices.

The cheaper plans are unavailable when you are on contract, and a plan that saves you $50/month for the same service is going to save you more overall than the "steep" price of a no-commitment phone.

Read my post again.

 

[Zivic]

Nonsense. The cost of service with a prepaid plan is universally cheaper than the SAME service on a postpaid 2 year contract.

Compare sprint and virgin mobile. Same network, virgin mobile plans are much much cheaper. Compare t-mobile prepaid and t-mobile regular 2 year contract prices.

The cheaper plans are unavailable when you are on contract, and a plan that saves you $50/month for the same service is going to save you more overall than the "steep" price of a no-commitment phone.

how about comparing ATT and Verizon with their prepaid services, since sprint and t-mobile have sh!t coverage. I have had both, doesn't matter how cheap their service is, because it doesn't work. I pay more with ATT, but my phone actually works

 

[Chiropteran]

Read my post again.

Yes, there are cheaper plans out there, but again, that's a separate discussion from the phone itself.

No, it's not a separate discussion. The two are intricately linked. You CAN'T get a prepaid plan with a postpaid phone, and you would be foolish to pay the premium of standard contract pricing if you aren't using a postpaid phone.

 

[Chiropteran]

how about comparing ATT and Verizon with their prepaid services, since sprint and t-mobile have sh!t coverage. I have had both, doesn't matter how cheap their service is, because it doesn't work. I pay more with ATT, but my phone actually works

Here you go, $50/month unlimited calls,txt,data from AT&T on prepaid-

http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/plans/voice/sku5240223.html

Nearest equivalent seems to be $69.99 for unlimited calls/txt on a postpaid contract, but that doesn't include data. Adding $20 for data (only 300mb, not unlimited even), total premium for a non-prepaid plan is $40/month- and that doesn't even get you unlimited data. If you wanted more data the deal would just get even worse for contract wireless service.

So over the 2-year contract, you pay $40 extra every month, or $960 total over the life of the contract.

Add the on-contract cost for the phone, which is $199 for a new high end phone, and you get $1160. Compare that to the off-contract price of $650, and you can see that the prepaid phone's "steep" price is really by far the best deal around.


So there you go. AT&T is also vastly superior as prepaid, just like sprint and t-mobile and every other phone company. If you aren't using prepaid you are giving money away for nothing.

 

[Deeko]

No, it's not a separate discussion. The two are intricately linked. You CAN'T get a prepaid plan with a postpaid phone, and you would be foolish to pay the premium of standard contract pricing if you aren't using a postpaid phone.

You cut out the important part of my post. You aren't getting the same thing with prepaid vs post paid. And if you find the prepaid plans are a better value, and fit what you need, that's great - but they still aren't the same, so you can't eliminate that factor from the discussion.

 

[Raduque]

I hate it when people use fuzzy math to try and tell you it's cheaper to pay $500-700 for a device and $100/mo than it is to pay $200 for a device and $100/mo.

 

[Chiropteran]

You cut out the important part of my post. You aren't getting the same thing with prepaid vs post paid. And if you find the prepaid plans are a better value, and fit what you need, that's great - but they still aren't the same, so you can't eliminate that factor from the discussion.

I'm really not getting you. What is the difference? Do you think that when you make a phone-call with a prepaid plan, you somehow get some sort of substandard service? When you download data on a prepaid plan, does the wireless provide add virus files to your downloads?

How is the service different? On paper is the exact same and/or better (for example unlimited data on prepaid, limited to 300mb on postpaid contract plans).

 

[Deeko]

I'm really not getting you. What is the difference? Do you think that when you make a phone-call with a prepaid plan, you somehow get some sort of substandard service? When you download data on a prepaid plan, does the wireless provide add virus files to your downloads?

How is the service different? On paper is the exact same and/or better (for example unlimited data on prepaid, limited to 300mb on postpaid contract plans).

What's the LTE coverage for prepaid plans these days? What if you want the optional services that AT&T or Verizon provide?

 

[Chiropteran]

What's the LTE coverage for prepaid plans these days? What if you want the optional services that AT&T or Verizon provide?

Why would it be any different? I don't use verizon or at&t, but i imagine you can pay extra for those service just as you can on prepaid plans. On T-mobile, if I want to pay extra for tethering, I can, for example.

On t-mobile, I get full access to t-mobiles network, there isn't any segregation for LTE being contract only, I can't imagine other phone service providers doing it any different.

 

[Deeko]

Why would it be any different? I don't use verizon or at&t, but i imagine you can pay extra for those service just as you can on prepaid plans. On T-mobile, if I want to pay extra for tethering, I can, for example.

On t-mobile, I get full access to t-mobiles network, there isn't any segregation for LTE being contract only, I can't imagine other phone service providers doing it any different.

So far as I'm aware, Verizon does not have prepaid LTE.

 

[Chiropteran]

So far as I'm aware, Verizon does not have prepaid LTE.

Well, time to become aware of the truth.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=verizon+prepaid+lte

Additionally, starting May 1, customers can purchase a prepaid Verizon Jetpack™ 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot MiFi® 4510L and take advantage of new prepaid Mobile Broadband plans. With the prepaid Jetpack, customers can now create a personal Wi-Fi cloud capable of sharing the high-speed Internet connectivity of the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network with up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices simultaneously. Prepaid 4G LTE Mobile Broadband plans are as follows:

$15 for 250 MB of data weekly
$60 for 3 GB of data monthly
$90 for 10 GB of data monthly

 

[benzylic]

Well, time to become aware of the truth.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=verizon+prepaid+lte

Additionally, starting May 1, customers can purchase a prepaid Verizon Jetpack™ 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot MiFi® 4510L and take advantage of new prepaid Mobile Broadband plans. With the prepaid Jetpack, customers can now create a personal Wi-Fi cloud capable of sharing the high-speed Internet connectivity of the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network with up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices simultaneously. Prepaid 4G LTE Mobile Broadband plans are as follows:

$15 for 250 MB of data weekly
$60 for 3 GB of data monthly
$90 for 10 GB of data monthly

Thats not for a phone though, its so you can get internet on your laptop or tablet. To use it you then have to carry this around.

 

[Deeko]

Well, time to become aware of the truth.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=verizon+prepaid+lte

Additionally, starting May 1, customers can purchase a prepaid Verizon Jetpack™ 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot MiFi® 4510L and take advantage of new prepaid Mobile Broadband plans. With the prepaid Jetpack, customers can now create a personal Wi-Fi cloud capable of sharing the high-speed Internet connectivity of the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network with up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices simultaneously. Prepaid 4G LTE Mobile Broadband plans are as follows:

$15 for 250 MB of data weekly
$60 for 3 GB of data monthly
$90 for 10 GB of data monthly

Their main prepaid site said it was 3G data. Either way, $80 for 1GB of data is only $10 less than their postpaid plan would be - over the course of two years, that saves you $240. Meanwhile, you would have to pay $600-$700 for your phone instead of $200, depending on what you get. So, it looks like the prepaid option will actually net you a loss of $200 or so after two years, on top of requiring a larger amount up front.

Look - you don't seem to get it. Not everyone has $700 to shell out for a phone. Even if they do, they don't always want to - and in some cases, such as the analogy you just presented, they're actually getting a worse deal overall.

What it comes down to is both ways have their advantages, and luckily the customer has their choice of which option they prefer. So you should probably settle down, stop whining about the media mischaracterizing the situation (which they aren't), and just enjoy your prepaid service.

 

[Deeko]

Oh, I just read the link again after reading benzylic's post - I don't think the $80 prepaid plan is LTE after all, its just EV-DO. The only LTE they're offering is on the Jetpack. So...my original point still stands.

 

[Chiropteran]

It seems like you are simply picking an example to support your argument. Did you even read my first post?

"I was reading an article about using the Iphone 5 on t-mobile"

After going back and forth for a number of posts you have found that Verizon's prepaid deal is crap and a bad deal.

How does that invalidate my original post which was about an article referencing T-Mobile?

 

[Chiropteran]

Thats not for a phone though, its so you can get internet on your laptop or tablet. To use it you then have to carry this around.

Deeko asked if Verizon had prepaid plans that support LTE. I googled "verizon prepaid lte" and that is what I found. If you want to do all the homework and show proof that Verizon's prepaid phone plans don't support LTE, I'll let you do the work, I'm not going to waste more time on Verizon.

Without doing any research, I suspect that Verizon only offers a very small selection of phones for prepaid service and none of those phones have an LTE radio.

 

[kubani1]

I think for most people, myself included, I cannot afford $600+, or in my case £400+, on a phone all at once. I can afford a monthly contract though.

Plus, £30 a month is much less of a shock to the system than £400.

Edit: if by chance you have the money, than yes by all means it is cheaper to buy the phone outright. There by proving how it is so much easier to save money when you have money

 

[Chiropteran]

I think for most people, myself included, I cannot afford $600+, or in my case £400+, on a phone all at once. I can afford a monthly contract though.

Plus, £30 a month us much less of a shock to the system than £400.

If you can pay $80/month for a contract phone, you should be able to pay $30/month for a prepaid phone and put aside $50/month. At the end of a 2 year period the smarter prepaid phone using you will have $1200 set aside for a new phone, which the other version of you on a $80 contract will have $0 saved and will be out another $199 to buy a new subsidized contract phone.

If you are really so poor and hard up that you can't pay for a $650 phone, you shouldn't have a cellphone service at all, you are throwing away thousands so you can save $450.

 

[Deeko]

It seems like you are simply picking an example to support your argument. Did you even read my first post?

"I was reading an article about using the Iphone 5 on t-mobile"

After going back and forth for a number of posts you have found that Verizon's prepaid deal is crap and a bad deal.

How does that invalidate my original post which was about an article referencing T-Mobile?

I said that prepaid isn't always the same as postpaid. You asked how, I referenced an example - a lack of LTE options on prepaid. Maybe you don't care about LTE. A lot of people - especially people willing to drop $700 on a top of the line smartphone - do. As such, my point remains perfectly valid - we have a choice, some choose prepaid, some choose postpaid, either way, you are simply incorrect to say they are misleading.

And if you REALLY want a direct response to the iPhone on T-Mobile, LTE still stands as a differentiating variable - if you buy it for $200 on AT&T postpaid, you get LTE. If you buy it for $700 and take it to T-Mobile, you do not.

 

[Deeko]

Deeko asked if Verizon had prepaid plans that support LTE. I googled "verizon prepaid lte" and that is what I found. If you want to do all the homework and show proof that Verizon's prepaid phone plans don't support LTE, I'll let you do the work, I'm not going to waste more time on Verizon.

Without doing any research, I suspect that Verizon only offers a very small selection of phones for prepaid service and none of those phones have an LTE radio.

Its funny, for someone that was being really snarky about being "right" about Verizon's prepaid LTE, you sure are being smug about how much you don't care enough to do the research when you're proven wrong. I see a common factor....hmmm....