July 7, 2009
Posted by Josh Levy

It all comes down to choices, real and otherwise.

USA Today reporter Leslie Cauley wrote today that customers fed up with AT&T's practices of blocking unfriendly apps and making it impossible to switch carriers "have two choices: They can suck it up and stay with AT&T, or storm the wall."

Translation: Customers can stay with AT&T and its unfair practices, or choose to unlock their phones for use on another carrier -- and run the risk of turning their iPhones into iBricks. Cauley says that 300,000 iPhone users have already jumped the fence to T-Mobile.

Why take that chance? Cauley writes:

The problem for consumers: Carrier obsession with customer control is growing. Profit is the driver. As the USA reaches wireless saturation — meaning everybody who wants a cellphone already has one — carriers have to hustle hard to add customers and grow revenue.

To do that, carriers like AT&T are locking down the wireless Internet and making it impossible for customers to take their phones elsewhere. (The FCC and Congress are both looking into the issue.)

It doesn't have to be this way. In most countries, the iPhone is available "on a non-exclusive basis,” meaning that you buy the phone first and choose your carrier second. That makes the phones more expensive, but in the long run consumers don't have to worry about contracts and can choose whichever carrier they want.

But an AT&T rep said that wireless customers also have a choice. "Consumers have the ultimate option of buying or not buying" an iPhone, he told USA Today. "And the fact is, they're choosing to buy in overwhelming numbers."

It's true that we can either choose either to buy or not buy an iPhone. But if we want an Internet-ready phone -- and more and more of us do -- our only other "choice" is another smart phone hampered by the same restrictions as those crippling the iPhone. That's not a choice at all.

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