T-Mobile Breaks Free of the Cellphone Carrier Conspiracy

David Pogue writes, When you buy a cellphone — an iPhone or Android phone, let’s say — you pay $200. Now, the real price for that sophisticated piece of electronics is around $600.

Because of the subsidies, we actually don't know what the real price of that piece of electronics is. There's a very good chance the subsidies themselves are there to increase the price out the door of that piece of electronics.

In a no subsidy free market, who knows, while MSRP of a cellphone might be $600, the real price might turn out to be $450 or so.

It's important to realize that if AT&T had been able to buy up T-Mobile, this never would have happened.

Useful disruptions are less likely when we have too few companies in a given market.

Note: OfficeMax and Office Depot are trying to merge.

metropcs has been doing this for ages.