Man, the breakup of AT&T reminds me of when Arnold blasted the T2 to smithereens, only to have it re-agglomerate into something just as big and bad. Only, with AT&T, it's much bigger and badder.
@mcatrageWell the honest truth to the deal is this...Cell phones really cost about $250 - $350 for that $FREE - $49.99 phone you get when you sign up for a service. Cell phone companies sell it for that much less because they make a killing off of your $$ on service. Think about it all they really do is expand towers and routine upkeep maintenance. If you apply the above to smart phones, PDA phones and the like you are up to ~$800 + for a cell phone.People will NEVER purchase a cell phone for either of those costs and then pay for service on top of that. So essentially you are NEVER paying for a cell phone but more like you are paying for the cell service. Now on the other end of that is the fact that Cingular/AT&T etc. have to get you in the door and signed up on their service. Well in order to do that you have to have phones people want so is what they do is they share some of that cold hard $$ with the cell phone vendor; in this case Apple. So Apple will continue to make a small % on the back end for everyone who purchases a contract with thier phone and keeps it.This is actually the same thing that happens with BestBuy, Circuit City, CompUSA, Wal-Mart, Beepers & Phones etc. They also get $$$ on the back end from those who sign up for plans. Back in 2000 when I worked for one of the above mentioned companies we had a presentation about selling cell phones and the short of this was that if we were to activate 1, just ONE, cell phone per day for one year that would ammount for $1M dollars in residual income from the cell companies for the life of those plans. THAT IS ALL PROFIT.This is why you cannot purchase a $49.99 cell phone from Cingular and go to Verizon and hook it up. I know a ton of people on here will want to digg down the previous statement because the two companies "technically" could never work together because they both use different technologies however *if* they did use the same technologies (or said phone was able to use any/all of the technologies) then you still would not be able to do this.I have heard (you used to be able to do this) that you can still pay the ACTUAL retail price for the phone and the company who locked it could technically give you the unlock code. I belive this is OLD information because it is no longer a code to unlock (again I am not into that scene much anymore so I don't know everything about it) the phone. I know in the past if you already had the phone you used to be able to pay the difference between the actual retail price and then they would again, give you the unlock code (again this is OLD information)There is NO way that if cell companies were to change their business model people would even purchase cell phones. There would be a killer used market however there would be NO phones that are used :)
xstaticJan 13, 2007
SBC's Ed Whitacre likes the AT&T brand and is dumping all other names for it as quick as he can...Here is the press release<a class="user" href="http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=4800&cdvn=news&newsarticleid=23308">http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=4800&cdvn=news&newsarticleid=23308</a>
dukeJan 13, 2007
Man, the breakup of AT&T reminds me of when Arnold blasted the T2 to smithereens, only to have it re-agglomerate into something just as big and bad. Only, with AT&T, it's much bigger and badder.
magicaltrevor2Jan 13, 2007
I'm going to type in and submit a comment.
firemillen2Jan 13, 2007
WTF. We're really returning to 1984. What's next BP and Exxon merging to reform Standard Oil?
ecsosJan 13, 2007
um, no thank you isn't going to stop them calling you. you have to ask to be put on the 'do not call list'
cerebralJan 14, 2007
@mcatrageWell the honest truth to the deal is this...Cell phones really cost about $250 - $350 for that $FREE - $49.99 phone you get when you sign up for a service. Cell phone companies sell it for that much less because they make a killing off of your $$ on service. Think about it all they really do is expand towers and routine upkeep maintenance. If you apply the above to smart phones, PDA phones and the like you are up to ~$800 + for a cell phone.People will NEVER purchase a cell phone for either of those costs and then pay for service on top of that. So essentially you are NEVER paying for a cell phone but more like you are paying for the cell service. Now on the other end of that is the fact that Cingular/AT&T etc. have to get you in the door and signed up on their service. Well in order to do that you have to have phones people want so is what they do is they share some of that cold hard $$ with the cell phone vendor; in this case Apple. So Apple will continue to make a small % on the back end for everyone who purchases a contract with thier phone and keeps it.This is actually the same thing that happens with BestBuy, Circuit City, CompUSA, Wal-Mart, Beepers & Phones etc. They also get $$$ on the back end from those who sign up for plans. Back in 2000 when I worked for one of the above mentioned companies we had a presentation about selling cell phones and the short of this was that if we were to activate 1, just ONE, cell phone per day for one year that would ammount for $1M dollars in residual income from the cell companies for the life of those plans. THAT IS ALL PROFIT.This is why you cannot purchase a $49.99 cell phone from Cingular and go to Verizon and hook it up. I know a ton of people on here will want to digg down the previous statement because the two companies "technically" could never work together because they both use different technologies however *if* they did use the same technologies (or said phone was able to use any/all of the technologies) then you still would not be able to do this.I have heard (you used to be able to do this) that you can still pay the ACTUAL retail price for the phone and the company who locked it could technically give you the unlock code. I belive this is OLD information because it is no longer a code to unlock (again I am not into that scene much anymore so I don't know everything about it) the phone. I know in the past if you already had the phone you used to be able to pay the difference between the actual retail price and then they would again, give you the unlock code (again this is OLD information)There is NO way that if cell companies were to change their business model people would even purchase cell phones. There would be a killer used market however there would be NO phones that are used :)