Another Lawsuit Filed Against Wireless Carriers For Forcing Phones

from the let-there-be-choice dept

Another lawsuit has been filed by consumers annoyed that wireless carriers force them to buy their handsets in bundles from the carriers. The arguments are that it's a monopolistic practice that limits choice. The carriers respond that there's plenty of choice in carriers... and that to compete, they need to offer bundled plans. Considering the fact that carriers often subsidize the price of phones anyway, I'd say it's probably a better deal for most consumers. The only area where they run into problems are if people want to keep the same phone when they switch carriers.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    brian, 4 Sep 2002 @ 11:04am

    I don't think so

    If they are all so concerned about buying phones from the cell company I invite them to go to Motorola.com and buy one direct. At the wireless company I work for we will activate it without a contract. Contracts are only for people who want a handset discount. If they are mad about not using phones with other carriers, don't worry about lock codes, in my area the phones wont work simply because we all use diff tech!
    ATT + Cingular TDMA
    Sprint + Verizon + Alltel CDMA
    Voicestream GSM
    Nextel iDEN or whatever

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Daron Westbrooke, 18 Jun 2003 @ 7:12pm

    You idiot

    How stupid are these people. Different carriers use different technology and work on different frequencies. You buy a phone with your plan so it will WORK! I don't even work in the wireless business and I know this.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.