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Comment by bgentry | Hacker News Reader

This quote summarizes the whole issue for me:

Two weeks ago, as it happens, I took my business away from AT&T. The reason? Simple. T-Mobile offered me a better deal.

Lower prices. No two-year contract. And monthy savings because I brought my own phone.

It was a free market. So I moved.

And now, that choice is gone. Sure, you can choose between companies A, B, & C. All of which cost roughly the same, nickel & dime you to death, and make similar efforts to restrict customer freedom.

Did I mention I will theoretically have to pay an extra $50 to use tethering the same way I've been doing since I got T-Mobile?!?

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For me, it's about the price. I'm paying $50/mo for TRUE unlimited data, unlimited text and 500 minutes. Tethering at no additional cost, literally the very same day Android 2.2 came for the Galaxy S/Vibrant and brought mobile AP + tethering, I cancelled my ISP plan.

Not to mention the support you get from Tmob. When my bank screwed up an authorized payment that cleared the checkbook, yanked it back, Tmobile immediately went to the front-lines to fix it, and when the bank refused to cooperate, they just gave me three months of free service.

This buy out cannot be passed.

I'm actually not so sure. At least for me, the problem has always been that it's so hard to switch carriers because of handset lock-in and the different radio bands/technologies the different carriers are using.

Seems to me that if ATT buys Tmob, and maybe Vzn buys Sprint, it'll be a duopoly, but at least they'll both be converging on the LTE standard, which would theoretically make it easier to switch between the two with a single handset, making them actually compete on price/coverage/speed/service, etc.

I don't believe can be considered open and fair competition until the US outlaws selling cell phones which are carrier locked and all providers are required to offer fair discounts for unsubsidized/no-contract customers.

Even then, you'll have 2 options, both of which suck.

I pretty much agree with you, but right now we have four options that all mostly suck. I think that's partly because of the tech/bands. If it were two companies with handsets that worked on both, I think it would help.

But you're probably right that the subsidization/contract model is a bigger problem.

For me, it's about quality. Guess who had the worst network in America?

http://blogs.consumerreports.org/electronics/2010/12/consume...

I bought a nexus one and moved to tmobile for exactly those reasons.

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