Ahead of the Curve | Tom Yager » Question: How will you switch carriers for iPhone?

June 25, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Question: How will you switch carriers for iPhone?

TAGS: Apple, General

All iPhone units sold in the U.S. will be locked to AT&T's GSM/GPRS/EDGE mobile network. If you're already an AT&T subscriber, iPhone is a painless transition. If you're on a month-to-month contract with another operator, or you had a term contract which has now expired, you're sitting pretty for iPhone.

But if you're already under contract with a competing operator (e.g. T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon), it might cost you as much as $300 to bail out of the one or two-year agreement that scored you a cheap price on your existing handset.

If you're in that latter category--under active contract to an AT&T competitor--but planning to buy an iPhone, how will you do it?

a) Pay the one-time fee to sever your existing contract immediately (what will it cost you?)
b) Buy iPhone and make payments on your existing phone service until its contract expires (give your phone to a relative, friend, keep it as a spare?)
c) Try to complain, threaten or loophole your way into a courtesy cancellation ("I'm being deported"; "I have petitioned ICANN for a .sucks top level domain just for you"; "My service was always horrible, but it became absolutely intolerable on June 29th"; "Return to sender: Addressee deceased"; other?)
d) Something I haven't thought of

Please weigh in via comments, and don't be shy with details.

My money's on b), but don't let that sway your vote.

Posted by Tom Yager on June 25, 2007 04:59 PM

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