On Wed, Jun 11, 2008 at 10:56 AM, robert lazarski <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Wed, Jun 11, 2008 at 9:55 AM, Shawn <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> My question is this: >> say I buy a freerunner, but decide to switch to AT&T as my provider (as I >> plan to do in the near future), will they not hit me with a contract >> agreement anyway? Isn't that how you get the cheapest minute/plans? If thats >> the case, then yeah, it looks like the iPhone is cheaper for my situation. >> If you already have a mobile plan and do not intend to switch, then the >> freerunner is the way to go. . . >> >> just my 2 cents. > > Depends on the country and even more on personal preference. I > personally have never used a cell phone via a contract - I buy > pre-paid minutes, because I know what I'm spending that way. Plus the > contract terms are comparable to an EULA - scary stuff to this > individual. > > In fact, in Brazil where I live its illegal to sell a blocked phone - > in no small part because those predatory telephone companies do > curious things on their bills and limit their services. I think > perhaps the USA is the odd ball in their "locked" way of doing > business, so ymmv.
Forgot to mention in Brazil there are more choices then, for example, only two in the USA. So if one starts to screw me, I vote with another cheap simm chip from a competitor (about 4-5 here in Fortaleza). Judging unofficially here, its far more common that not to _not_ have a contract. I'd assume the opposite is true in the USA. > > I personally would find it ironic if I had an "open source" cell phone > but had to have a contract to use it - but that's just me. Would I be > paying extra on minutes? I only make about 10 minutes of calls a month > and a little more when I travel, but even if it made modest economic > sense, I prefer to pay more for my freedom. Sort of like paying more > for an unlocked openmoko rather than some comparable alternative - if > there's a choice, I'll pay more for freedom. Whether other people > would or wouldn't pay more for their freedom isn't an interesting > question to me - I simply don't care. > > Robert > _______________________________________________ Openmoko community mailing list [email protected] http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community
