How US and Other Telco providers should act! (And how it is in New Zealand)

[AidanJMessenger]

TL:DR: In NZ no phones are locked, if we buy on contract we get a subsidy off of a phone dependent on the amount paid and term of the contract, prices are decent(ish) and the US should adopt this because they have no reason to lock phones, and there should be a law passed to make it illegal to lock phones, not illegal to unlock phones. 

 

Almost every week if not day, I hear people go on about how horrible the telco's treat people in the US. And by far the biggest issue is the locking of phones. I was watching an old episode of The Tek last night, where they were talking about making it illegal to unlock phones, and this sparked me to write a post, because I think that's the complete opposite thing to make law.

 

You see, here in New Zealand many years ago, it was in fact going to become a law to make it illegal for Telco's to LOCK phones! As far as I'm aware such a law never actually went through, as just the threat of it made Telco's decide against the idea. Many years ago there were only really 2 networks, Telecom and Vodafone. Now these are still the 2 major networks, however many other networks, who were mostly focused on cheaper prices sprung up (2Degrees, and Skinny Mobile. Skinny are just telecom but offering cheaper prices to compete with 2Degrees under a different name). Anyway, continuing with the main point.

 

Here in New Zealand, no one locks phones. Although it was thought by many that Vodafone locked phones, however what was really happening was just that Vodafone phones ran on different bands, and therefore often weren't supported on Telecom (and can still sometimes be the case). While we may not have super fast internet, or unlimited caps (internet here is a completely other topic, Imaging living with 30-60GB per month, with speeds of 5-10mbps... That's what most of NZers have), However I am proud to say that the way we do mobile here in New Zealand is where the Telco's in the US, Canada and wherever else should take note from!

 

If you buy a phone in New Zealand from a NZ telco, it's unlocked. Period. So if only one network offers a phone for sale, you can still buy the phone from them, and use it on your favourite network. Either way that Telco has still made some money from you. Now most phones we buy (And every phone I buy and have bought) are bought at regular price, in other words the $649 you guys pay in the US for a contract free, unlocked phone, is what the majority of us pay. However a New iPhone, or latest GS4, or HTC one always costs about $1049NZD so about $870 USD (So stop complaining about the price in the US please, we would love that price!) Alternatively, you can sign up to numerous plans, each of which offers an amount of subsidy off of a phone. So say you want the iPhone, and you want to sign up to a 24 month plan, if you pay for a plan that's $60/Month (All prices in NZD) then you get say a $300 subsidy off the phone. If you want a phone as expensive as the iPhone for free, you're looking at about a $100-$150 plan (yes, we can get the phones for free!). (if you want actual examples of this, check out this webpage to see exact subsidies and prices and what you get in these plans

 

The main thing to remember here is that not a single phone is locked, and really there is no reason for them to be. If you're signing up for a phone on a 24 month plan with a network anyway, the locked phone isn't keeping you on the network, the 24 month plan is. Which you can freely cancel at any time, although paying a hefty fee in the process! I realise that nowadays telcos will often happily unlock your phone once your term is up, but that begs the question of why do it in the first place? Furthermore, it's YOUR PHONE that YOU'VE PAID FOR, and with a contract, you've ended up paying far more for the phone than if you'd bought it unlocked, so why should they have the right to lock something you've bought and now own, to their own network? Also, with launches like the iPhone launch, where availability is so scarce, imagine how much easier it would be to get one when the only decision you'd have to make is the size and colour, unlike now where you need size, colour, network, etc. Making production and distribution harder. Finally, here in New Zealand, with every phone being unlocked, resale value is very high. I can sell my used iPhone 5 for between $700-$800 and spend the extra $250-$350 to upgrade to the new 5S. Although I have to wait quite a few months, because not only does it take a long time to launch here, but we get maybe 1000 phones for the entire country.... it's horrible. 

 

This is exactly what the US and everyone else should start doing! It's time to see the light and sort out their act. It's unfortunate that they're so powerful and can do whatever they want, not giving a damn about their customers and just doing everything for the sake of money and to piss people off. 

 

I hope this post was informative, and gives everyone out there an idea of what it's like outside of the US, and something to aim for. As everyone complains about the situation, but doesn't really offer any better suggestions or give any good examples. And if you're REALLY sick of the telco's, feel free to join Kim Dotcom over here in New Zealand, we'll welcome you with open arms (And a powhiri... Google / youtube it. hahaha).... If you can understand us ( again, youtube the NZ accent lol). 

 

I apologise if this post is a little unstructured and rambly, but I've been babysitting kids all day... the mind turns to mush

[AidanJMessenger]

Just as a side note, I think it would be a great thing to talk about on the WAN show! @Slick and @LinusTech

[CoolBeans]

TL:DR please

[RainColt]

TL:DR please

Come on CoolBeans, that wasn't very nice. Now apologize for being rude and read the whole thing, when your finished I'll bake you cookies.

[AidanJMessenger]

No no, I was actually considering putting in a TL:DR in there, but decided not to. But I'll put one in there. 

[RainColt]

From this I conclude that the difference is that your phones are unlocked out of the box but the rest of it sounds very similar to what we have in Canada, your link to the webpage to see exact subsidies isn't there so I can't really compare, but where I live we have sasktel, rogers, telus, koodo, and Virgin moblie, now they come locked but to unlock them there is a website that you can go to and pay 20$ to get an unlock code so it's not to inconvenient and we also get many phones for free on 3 year plans and for like 200$ on 2 year plans and it looks like your plans are just as over priced as ours and that is where we bend over and take it but not enjoy it.

 

I have never actually bought a phone in my life but I am pretty sure we have an upgrade plan here too. I don't know how it works so I won't go into it.

[Cad6500]

My family has always preffered prepaid cards, much simpler and cheaper

[CoolBeans]

Come on CoolBeans, that wasn't very nice. Now apologize for being rude and read the whole thing, when your finished I'll bake you cookies.

I am not trying to be rude

[RainColt]

I am not trying to be rude

If you don't apologize your not getting cookies. No I get it, I understood what you meant after AppleFanboyNZ's responce.

[AidanJMessenger]

Heres a screenshot of the page, since the link decided not to work. 

 

And also, yes it does seem rather similar, but mainly the point is that they should not have the right to lock, or make it the law to make unlocking illegal. You shouldn't have to pay or jump through any hoops or anything to unlock it, and basically it would just help a lot of people with such an annoying thing.

 

Prices for contracts here aren't super cheap (Google "xxx NZD to USD" to find the price in USD, changing the xxx to the correct price of course), but we generally don't sign up for the contracts anyway. You're fortunate that the phones are much cheaper in the US. And Canada isn't quite as bad as the US. But either way, having phones factory unlocked, would just make everything a hell of a lot easier. Note this is also only one network, and one of the more expensive networks too. We don't even have 4G yet, but that's coming very very soon. Just as a side note

[AidanJMessenger]

Also note, that any prices include GST of 15% so if you take for example the galaxy S4 offer at the bottom there, if you convert it to USD of $82 and then take off 15%, you'd have the US equivalent price. So on a 2 year contract that costs $70 USD a month, you get a free GS4, HTC One, iPhone 5 etc. Vs in the US you'd get a locked phone, have to pay $199 USD for the phone, and the contract is potentially more expensive. 

[AidanJMessenger]

Oh and please, I embrace any arguments, thoughts, comparisons etc. It's always nice to see what it's like in other countries, and getting opinions on how others would change things to make things operate better!

[3VIL_G3NIUS]

We have it better for phones, but way worse for internet I'm sure you feel my pain brother. haha
 

On this topic though it is my understanding that in the US it costs you/uses up text allowance when you receive a text, and same for pixts (not that anyone uses them). If that's true then that's another thing that should be different over there, although I assume it costs less/you get more in the USA. 

Also how many people in the US use prepaid? Here in NZ most people use prepaid and plans are mostly only used with business phones and people that want to spread the cost over a period of time.