In alt.cellular.verizon CozmicDebris <isheforreal> wrote:
>
> Except that it gives them a healthy loss to write off every quarter for
> equipment subsudies.And I'll gurantee that neither the IRS or SEC woudl
> allow them to either make up or artificially inflate that number.
>

They better not be writing it off as a loss ... it clearly is NOT. It is an
investment [I don't get to write off my investments ... in fact, I have to pay
taxes on the earnings when I get them]. They "invest" $150 in your phone so
that the phone is cheaper for you, and in return, they over charge you by a
certain amount for one or two years to make up that money ... and if you quit
early, they charge you more than the $150 the initially invested in you, so
they still get a profit.

That is why I say it shouldn't be legal. Plan prices should be lower if a
person is not on contract and they should be able to activate a non-subsidized
phone, whether new or used, without a contract and without paying the rates
created for "subsidy recovery". The best deal in the world for these
companies is somebody coming in with a used phone, activating it on a new plan
and charging them the same monthly rate that they charge others who are paying
off their subsidy AND creating a profit for the carrier. In short, these
people are probably the most profitable ... yet, they don't allow it in a lot
of cases ... or want to charge you MORE per month to start a phone on a new
plan without a contract [I think Sprint used to charge $10 / month for this].

Someday, it will be all wireless data, and you can pick your VoIP provider and
phone ... then we will be complaining about data contracts instead of these
blasted subsidy rip-offs.

--
Thomas T. Veldhouse

America is the country where you buy a lifetime
supply of aspirin for one dollar, and use it up in two weeks.