if he were making that correlation, then he should have put REDiculous. that would have made more sense.

btw- it's referEnce, you ignoramus.

I don't need to justify my statements to you, since you're a sad ifanboi... aww, you see what I just did there?

in any case, be an adult and do your own legwork. Check out the cost/coverage for the major carriers (they are: Verizon Wireless, AT&T, TMobile, Sprint). What you get for what you pay is nearly identical between them.

I happen to have a bit more info about Verizon because a) I've been a customer for over a decade so I pay attention to changes, and b) I know a bunch of people who either have been, or still are, employees.

The $350 ETF is a recouperation of costs associated with the device, not a monthly payment or start up fee. If you don't want to have an ETF, then don't sign a contract. Simple as that. Hope you enjoy signing your contract and having an ETF with AT&T when you get your iphone...

@ Anon - ok, good for you. go away now. thank you.

" If I'm correct Verizon already has the highest fees for their phone, data, and entertainment services. "

negative. Actually, the majority of the prices are spot on with other carriers, and lately are becoming more in line with the market... meaning that VZW is most likely changing their plans and/or requirements to be in line with other major carriers.

A helluva lot of people think that VZW is SOOOO over priced. If you simply check what you get for what you're paying, the cost-to-plan ratio is actually in line with all the major carriers. The only real differences is what you get for the cost, and even that is starting to become a moot point.

your grammer is crap and you can't even spell "ridiculous" correctly.

also, the reasoning is valid. perfect example- Droid by Motorola. $560 off contract, or $200 on contract. You buy the phone for $200 (not including taxes), and then immediately cancel. Your ETF is $175. $200+175 = $375. You sell the phone for anything more than that, and you're profiting. And yes, people will easily pay ANYTHING less than full retail.

So Verizon changes the rules... $200 + $350 = $550, which is much closer to the actual cost by Verizon to get the phone in the first place.

It has nothing to do with greed, and everything to do with "Holy shit! We're losing money, and the people who buy the phone and then cancel are making a profit".

oh, and unless you can come up with some proof that the government was pushing for pro-rated ETFs, shaddup about that. Verizon was the first company to implement pro-rated ETF fees, and the others followed suit... well, some did.

@ Toledo

With the accounts that VZW *was* able to acquire, it has pushed them to #1.

Alltel still exists in what are called "trust markets", meaning there is no other competition and so VZW couldn't acquire those accounts, nor can they actively promote to those customers within those areas.

I **LOVE** how AT&T says "most popular smartphones" and "more wireless apps". Everybody and their dead grandma probably knows they are just referring to the iphone since it has sold however many and there's the appstore with "over 100,000 applications". I'm sure they're not even counting the BlackBerry AppWorld.

thank you! 21 comments and only 1 person pointed that out?????

VZW has been the nation's largest carrier since the aquisition of Alltel back in JANUARY!!!!

I saw one of the original commercials last night, and there was a disclaimer at the bottom that basically said it was representative of 3g data coverage, but voice and data are still available outside of 3G coverage areas... or something like that.

sounds to me that AT&T has nothing on this, since it is disclaimed that there is still voice and data outside of 3g coverage areas.

I don't remember posting this ... or your other post previously ...

well, maybe it's because *I* didn't, but it sounds EXACTLY like something I would say, and probably have said in the past.

Grown Up is a perfect moniker in a situation like this.