Is Verizon's Upgrade Change The Next Step Towards an End to Phone Subsidies?

[dpham00]

I was thinking he was the only human being on the face of this earth that understood what he was talking about..

Sent from my totally awesome Sprint Galaxy Nexus, even if I don't know all its secrets yet.

Basically that the carrier subsidy is worth between $15-26. I was just justifying it.

Second point being that if Verizon implemented an uncarrier plan, similar to tmo, most likely, it would not be to or benefit

Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note II

 

[dpham00]

I wonder if this money grab is something they are doing because they foresee more competition in the future as T-Mobile and Sprint roll out their LTE networks?

Then when we move to VoLTE, which is GSM based technology, phones will be more portable to other carriers, particularly with having Google releasing unlocked phones in the mix. If so, it could mean more competition and that will help to keep prices down?

Even with volte coming soon, Verizon Wireless will probably find a way to keep only their approved phones in their network. As it is, you cannot add a phone that is not in their database.

That, and the current Nexus 4 does not support LTE officially. It does have some gsm capabilites which were disabled by software and even if it were re enabled, it would not support Verizon lte. Even if they can't, I am sure that they will maintain 1x voice for years to come since to my knowledge, there aren't any dumb phones that support LTE.

Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note II