SydLexia.com - The Forums :: View topic - Congress has a weary eye upon the iPhone...

Posted: Jul 11 2007 07:08 pm

Congress is holding a subcommittee meeting into whether phones should be bundled in with the sorts of deals that Apple has signed with AT&T.
Although the title of the hearing is "Wireless Innovation and Consumer Protection" most of Washington is calling it the Iphone hearing.

Committee Chairman Ed Markey is keen on unbundling phones from such uncompetitive and unfair deals.

A person who buys a phone should be able to take their device with them, to whichever network provider is offering them a better deal."

Also being looked at are comments from Reed Hundt, former chairman of the FCC, who wants an open national data network, five times faster than AT&T's EDGE.

According to Tech Blorge, other parts of the Apple deal such as the closed network model behind it are also being looked at. If the sub-committee does not like Apple's doings it might just order an end to such deals.

Posted: Jul 11 2007 09:11 pm

That sounds pretty ridiculous in my opinion. I've had several cell phones in my life that could only be used with the carrier it was bought with! It's not as though this was some sort of secret.... people who bought the phone did so because they were impressed with the phone, and people who are "apple haters" are always looking for something to pick at.
I would LOVE to get myself an iPhone, but unfortunately it's not available in Canada! You don't see me taking it to congress.

Posted: Jul 11 2007 11:06 pm

Yes, but by that same token, there are no other phones that are exclusive to one provider. The last big phone, the Razr, was availible through multiple carriers. Personally, I think all phones should be "unlocked" so you can use them with any carrier of your choice.

You can use any brand phone you want with any land line can't you? So, why should wireless be any different?

I personally am really happy with the carrier I currently have, (Sprint), but I honestly hate the selection of phones. I am one my 2nd one, and basically picked the one that I did not hate the most, that was in an affordable price range.

Posted: Jul 12 2007 09:37 am

Knyte wrote:

Yes, but by that same token, there are no other phones that are exclusive to one provider. The last big phone, the Razr, was availible through multiple carriers. Personally, I think all phones should be "unlocked" so you can use them with any carrier of your choice.

You can use any brand phone you want with any land line can't you? So, why should wireless be any different?

I personally am really happy with the carrier I currently have, (Sprint), but I honestly hate the selection of phones. I am one my 2nd one, and basically picked the one that I did not hate the most, that was in an affordable price range.

I also have Sprint and I hate their phones. Their service is just too good to pass up in my area, though. I bought the Treo because I needed a PDA and I've been happy with it, but the flip phones are horrendous.

And Tish, I hope you were trying to be ironic or sarcastic about going to Congress because you can't get the phone in Canada.

I think the issue that's been brought up is a good one: it's not like AT&T made the phone themselves and decided to bundle it with their own service. Apple makes the phone and decided to give AT&T an unfair advantage in the marketplace.

A counter-argument that I heard (that I quickly shot down) was that there are places like K-Mart and Wal-Mart that sell "collections" by people like Martha Stewart, et al. The difference with that is that the people either design the clothes with K-Mart's final approval or they just stick their names on K-Mart's manufactured clothing.

Joined: Jun 03 2007 Posts: 95

Tishwitch wrote:

That sounds pretty ridiculous in my opinion. I've had several cell phones in my life that could only be used with the carrier it was bought with! It's not as though this was some sort of secret.... people who bought the phone did so because they were impressed with the phone, and people who are "apple haters" are always looking for something to pick at.
I would LOVE to get myself an iPhone, but unfortunately it's not available in Canada! You don't see me taking it to congress.

That's because you can't actually take anything to congress because you don't live in America, moron.

Posted: Jul 26 2007 12:44 pm

Knyte wrote:

Yes, but by that same token, there are no other phones that are exclusive to one provider.

Have you perhaps heard of Tracfone?
I'm pretty sure those phones are exclusive to that one provider.
And they're the source of all evil Twisted Evil

Posted: Jul 26 2007 03:01 pm

krislexia wrote:

Have you perhaps heard of Tracfone?

Tracfone? What is that, some kind of breakfast cereal?

Posted: Jul 26 2007 03:10 pm

S. McCracken wrote:

krislexia wrote:

Have you perhaps heard of Tracfone?

Tracfone? What is that, some kind of breakfast cereal?

lolol its pay as you go phone service... unless im mistaken... kind of like virgin mobile phones or boost... *chirp* where you at dawg?

Posted: Jul 26 2007 03:13 pm

I use Boost!

Posted: Jul 26 2007 04:38 pm

Phones cost too damn much for me, expecially considering the fact that I don't like to recieve calls from people, who usually suck.

Posted: Jul 26 2007 04:53 pm

The Congress looks up through its one weary eye
"Say, why'd you bring him in here for? He ain't the guy."

Here's the story of iPhone's fame
A thing I don't give a fucking shit about
Put under congressional supervision
But one time, it coulda been, no wait, I still don't give a shit

Posted: Jul 28 2007 11:30 am

That was beautiful, Syd.

I also have a pay-as-you-go phone. A Verizon. The phone is decent, and I'm with Verizon because when I finally got a phone, which was about 2 months ago, most of my friends also had Verizon, so bam.

I think I have a friend who has an iPhone, but I haven't heard word one from him about it yet. Or maybe that was a dream.

Posted: Jul 30 2007 09:28 pm

My Virgin mobile phone rocked and was cheap as balls, 15$ a month for 100 minutes and crap, but my cat took a dumple on it, so now I have Verizon and a Razr v3m I spent forever hacking up to remove verizons crap from it. It's the same price and crap too because it's a family plan blahblah.

Posted: Jul 31 2007 02:33 pm

I personally don't own an iPhone, not only because I'm in Canada and that would be stupid since it's not sold here yet and there's not carrier, but also because I really love my current phone. I have an LG white Chocolate:

Now, I may not have liked the phone so much had I actually paid the $300 for it... but thanks to the dumbest retail store on earth - FUTURESHOP (aka Best Buy for you Americans... same company) - I was able to get this phone absolutely free from Telus, my cell phone provider. In a nutshell, I originally got a phone in April 2006 (through Futureshop, authorized dealer for Telus), but the battery didn't hold a charge, Futureshop replaced it in September 2006. And recently, June 2007, again the battery is fucked, so I go to Futureshop... they refuse to exchange it, claiming the warranty expired in April 2007 (one year from the date I got the original phone). So, I call Telus, who look up my file, and tell me that this is crap, that the 1-year follows the phone, not the date the contract starts, and my warranty is good til September 2007, they specifically tell me to go back to Futureshop and tell them to look up my file... I go back to Futureshop, tell them this, and they basically bitch about how Telus doesn't know their store policy, and bla bla bla (which isn't applicable since they are selling the phone as an authorized dealer of Telus, they're not selling them as a retail transaction anyway)... in the end they were assholes and refused to exchange it, and were gonna make me pay something like $60 to have it sent in, without given me a loaner phone in the meantime, and could take 8 weeks... Did they think I was an idiot?... I called Telus, they apologized profusely for the trouble I had, an offered me $300 credit on a new phone + credit for the reactivation fee... And that's how I got the LG Chocolate.

Posted: Jul 31 2007 03:09 pm

The iPhone is actually looking pretty OK, but I read about an open-source phone that has more features than the iPhone. Can't remember what it's called, though, as I threw out that issue of Popular Science.

Posted: Jul 31 2007 03:18 pm

Maddox has a great new article on why his phone is better than the iPhone.

Posted: Jul 31 2007 03:31 pm

I've read it. That Nokia E70 looks pretty awesome.

Posted: Jul 31 2007 03:50 pm

Coclates are pretty cool, just sucks the ones verizon has are all gimped.

Posted: Jul 31 2007 04:20 pm

I think when you cram too many things into one package you fail at all of them.

Want a phone, buy a phone.
Want a MP3 Player, buy a MP3 player.
Want something to browse online, buy a Compueter/Laptop/Palm Pilot.
Want something to take pictures, buy a camera.

My phone play MP3s, but I can only put about 10 on it. So, I use my 2Gb Mp3 player which is 1/4th the size of my phone.
My phone takes pictures, but I use my digital camera which is almost the same size and looks way better, in much better resoultion.
My phone can go online, but it's slow and the pages are shrunk to shit. So, I use my computer.

Joined: Apr 14 2006 Location: Lake Michigan Posts: 3332

Yeah, I wish there was just a simple flip phone on the market that didn't have a camera, a browser, or music features, or any of that other useless crap. I'd buy that in a heartbeat. Instead, I upgraded to a razr last december because it's lightweight, and I have tons of features I don't use, meanwhile, my reception has gotten worse than when I had the v220.

Posted: Aug 01 2007 03:45 am

Tishwitch wrote:

also because I really love my current phone. I have an LG white Chocolate

Um, Tish... We might have something in common.