[QUOTE]The carriers won't pay commission on the phone, because it wasn't activated, the big warehouses won't get paid.. they lose money on the equipment.. so. basically.. everyone loses, except the mom and pop...

 

In the areas that I travel in Alltel has been awesome. I very rarely have a dropped call. My wife has Verizon and either has no signal or dropped calls all the time.

Maybe the problem is that I have the old simple Motorola Star Tac and she has a few gadgets on hers. Maybe it's because we travel mostly in the south east.

 

The phone does make a difference. My phone is pretty good, but some of the other phones Sprint sells are garbage. Unfortunately it's hard to get a straight answer on which phones have the best signal reception from the sales dudes.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by dkhl
[B]It is good to see so many people in the wireless business.

 

www.howardforums.com?

 

yes, phone makes a HUGE difference.....and to let you know, most service providers do take a loss on the sell of the phone....MOTO, Nokia, Samsung sell them for a lot to verizon/sprint/alltel/cingular.....and they sell them for less with a contract to sign because that is where they make the $$$$$$ at....

 

and i think the moto star tac is the best phone that was ever made......with the new V60 coming in a close second......they seem to be rock solid performers on all systems.....

 

It's statement like this that makes me believe you have absolutely ZERO idea on how the wireless industry operates.

Who makes cell phones? the wireless companies? i don't think so.. companies like Motorola, Samsung, LG, Sanyo, Audiovox...etc... they make them... who buys them? wireless providers. Who do they sell it to? consumers or resellers...

So, lets for with Motorola, Verizon, YOU the consumer...

Motorola makes the phone for Verizon. Verizon says, ok, i will buy 100K of your T720s for $X amount. Verizon takes that phone and sells it to you for $Y (Y=X-discount) that $Y can be anywhere from FREE to almost full price. Why? because Verizon Wireless, or any other carrier is not in the business of selling phones. IF they were, don't you think they would make their own phones? Carriers are only interested in providing you the means for you to get their service.

So, instead of going to Motorola, and buying the T720 for buttloads, i go to Verizon and get a pretty hefty discount. Now, why does Verizon and all those other carriers give you discounts? because they can make that money back when you sign the contract. I can tell you, that if you are a low end user, and you sign up for the cheapest plan, and never pay anything above that, the carriers are losing money on you. Why do you think ARPU's Are so important to each carrier.. oh yeah.. arpu... average revenue per user... because they can see how long it takes for the carrier to actually start making money off the consumer.

So.. that was a quick take on a direct link from Motorol - verizon - you...

Now lets go the other route and have a third party vendor come in to play.
Lets call them cell U store...

How do they make money? basically, the carriers agree to pay management of cell U x amount for every subscriber they sign up. who provides them with the phones? not the carriers.. Cell U has to go and purchase them from somewhere. The question is where.. if they have enough muscle, they can go to Motorola directly, but most of them go and have agreements with a middleman who will cut deals left and right...

The same situation still happens, Motorola will sell the middleman the phone for a price similar to where X is. might be higher since they will not have the same buying power as your typical carriers. so, Cell U buys the T720 from a middleman. Sells it to you for the same price, or lower than the carriers. Why? well, it would be stupid for them to sell it higher, cause the smart consumer will just go to a company store and purchase the phone. so they sell it to you for the same or lower price. That means they are taking a bigger hit on the phone. Cell U activates the phone and the carrier will send cell u a check in X amount. The management will take that amount, and use that to offset the cost of the phone. why? because Cell U will not receive any of the airtime that the consumer will pay anymore.. so they have to make a living.

So basically, why would best buy sell the mom and pop the phone, when they will take a loss, just to benefit the mom and pop store? that doesn't make sense... STEVE C, understand what arbitrage is... the question is... do you understand the basics of wireless?

I know at verizon stores, the cost of purchasing a prepaid phone is generally lower than the cost of buying a phone outright, that is, without contract, but you can not walk into a store, and purchase a phone without activating it. So once that is all done, the cost is generally the same. Now, you might have some savings, but that could be why Verizon has changed it so you can not use a prepaid phone on a post paid service, and a post paid phone on prepaid service. I think that idea is terrible, but it is necessary because people realize they can purchase prepaid phone to replace their broken post paid service.....

anyway, wow.. that was a long rundown of wireless... other people in the wireless business, you can correct me if i'm incorrect in what i wrote....

 

If I saw that Trench Coat Sprint PCS guy on fire, I would run to the closest gas station and buy more gas to throw on him.


While I lived in NYC, I could not use my 2 Sprint PCS phones after 9PM because the network was too busy. Sprint would not release me from my contracts either! SPRINT PCS!!


I have T-Mo now, they are good in AZ, worked good in NYC too.

 

Sorry didnt fell like ready the whole thread but I'll pipe in anyway..

I like NEXTEL!!

Except for there reception.. price... and crappy plans...

But other than then I like nextel...