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Comment by alimoeeny | Hacker News Reader

I think I understand that people want to have the option to switch, but I never, myself, had any reason to do so. I mean the differences between the services different providers provide is not that much (for me) to justify the switch. Maybe that is because I am on a grandfathered unlimited plan. Over the years I have periodically (with every new iphone), reviewed other options and never found the switch compelling. Anybody knows any reason other than "just having the option" ?

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The cost is a compelling reason. Last year, my spouse and I terminated our Verizon contracts, bought used iPhones on Glyde, and switched over to Page Plus Cellular. Our monthly bill dropped from $110 to $65. Factoring in the cost of the phones and the termination fee, the move will pay for itself within a year.

I think the big reason for me was cost. I cut my AT&T (3 phones) bill nearly in half (180 to 100) by switching to T-Mobile and buying a couple Nexus 5s. AT&T has become more competitive with their prices since then, so the savings is less now, but still there.

I'm a low data user that routes all of my texts through Google Voice. In a typical month, I'll use 200MB of data and 300-400MB in a particularly high usage month. Most contract plans that included data charged me ~$20-30/month for the data alone, so I wanted to switch.

I originally used T-Mobile's prepaid 100 minutes + "unlimited" data plan for $30 a month. I switched to RingPlus's 10 minutes + $0.02 per MB/minute overage plan for $2/month + data overage charges and reduced my bill to around $11 a month (this plan no longer exists -- it's 4 cents per MB now). I then switched to US Mobile on a 100 minutes + 250MB plan for $10 a month -- and their T-Mobile service gives me better coverage in my area.

By switching providers around with my personal use case, I was able to very aggressively bring my cell phone bill down. I've found being able to take the other option very valuable to me.

option to switch easily = incentive to compete.

Overseas travel can be one big reason. Overseas roaming is typically extremely expensive (T-Mobile being a notable exception to this) and having an unlocked phone means you can just pop in a local SIM card rather than farting around with workarounds or paying lots of money.

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