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Comment by RK | Hacker News Reader

Google, don't lose heart. It's not you. It's just that people in US don't know that they can buy phones in open market without signing away a chunk of income to cell companies every month.

As far as I know, only T-Mobile USA has really come on board so far to make non-subsidized phones a better deal. T-Mobile has cheaper rates if you are not on contract. If you buy the AT&T compatible Nexus One, for example, you still pay the phone "subsidy" the entire time are using AT&T, even though you own the phone outright.

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If you're a loyal T-Mobile customer you get to pay a loyalty tax if you want a Nexus One compared to if you are not a T-Mobile customer.

What do you mean exactly?

Honestly, it's just the way things work. It's not specific to this phone or provider. You get a subsidized phone when you sign up a _new_ plan. It's part of the cost of the service you're agreeing to. If you're already a customer, in the middle of a contract, they don't "reward" you by subsidizing a phone any time you ask for it (i.e. when a new one comes out).

When the N1 came out, however, people were for some reason surprised about this. There's lots of news about it: http://www.google.com/search?q=t-mobile+%22nexus+one%22+%22n...

What's the difference between me re-upping my contract for 2 years and someone else starting a new 2 year contract?

Google seems to think the former case deserves to pay $100 more for the phone.

T-Mobile pays out more in commission for the latter than the former.

If you're not outside your current contract, that's not really a very good option. If your plan has expired, aka, you're past your initial 2 years, that's fine.

Otherwise, you have people entering (comical) 20 year contracts, which would be (practically) unenforceable.

Huh? You've already received a subsidized phone if you are an existing customer so I don't see the point. If I don't want a subsidized phone, why should I pay the same rate as someone that does?

Can we expect LTE phones to work across carriers? If so, I anticipate a demand for change in the US when someone brings their out-of-contract ATT phone over to Verizon and realize they are paying as much as someone that got a subsidy.

In Germany at least there are lot's of options. I am currently on a contract with no recurring fees that can be canceled at any time. Prices for telephony and data connections are cheaper than most other contracts, too (so they don't make up for the lack of recurring fees with higher rates).

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