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I Think C-net did a article that you pay more on contract phone than Unlocked phone?? Because of the plans you are required to get! so after your contract is up is it true you do pay more than the phone is worth??
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Depending on which model, carrier, deal, etc. T-Mobile comes to mind, with their move away from subsidized (=initially discounted) pricing like the other carriers still use. YMMV.
The plan/feature cost is the same for contract vs. unsubsidized equipment pricing. If you are using a smart phone, you can't opt out of the data feature no matter how you purchased the device. I don't see how it matters unless you think of canceling a contract prior to it's termination date. Even then, I don't think there is much of any savings. To better answer your question you would need to be more descriptive.
...why don't you throw together some numbers and post them here(?)
IMO, it depends on how you use the phone. As and when I calculated for my needs, I would always end up paying lot more for contract phone than unlocked.
Quick math,
I do not use data and will not until I can manage without it. My ISP provides a lot of hotspots in the area I usually frequent. Although I would love to have data on phone ALL the time, its not a 'necessity'. I use PAYG and try to avoid cellphone as much as I can. I use VoIP landlines at home and at work for all possible stuff. That saves me a LOT of money. My monthly expenses are about $4. Hence I bought HTC One X at full price, $600, when I traveled to India (I did not know of Expansys then). And, I do not fancy latest and best, as long this works, I will use it or unless I end up with too much of cash that needs to be spent right away.
Since I bought my phone, my expenses are,
Phone $600,
PAYG credit (Since 09/2012) $10x5 =$50 (Pays for only calls and texts, 10c each call minute or text)
Thats it.
If you are not willing to take little extra efforts, then it is not advisable for you to even look into this business and get a contract and phone from the carrier.
Cheapest contract I have noticed is TMo $30/month. I don't even look at CDMA phones and contract because they can not be used on any other network, so although carriers like Republic, TextNow, Ting look good, the investment may not always pay out.
If you are trying to economize...and it looks as if you are/were....you should have shopped for an older, less expensive phone, instead of HTC's newly (relatively) released One X. There are lots of talented, year old or two year old phones out there that you can pick up for 100, 200 or 300 bucks.
You've got the right idea on purchasing your own phone....now you just have to become as sharp a shopper for PHONES as you are for PLANS! Good luck!
the old phones but the price that is usually asked is difficult to justify for the state of the phone. I have been keeping an eye on Verizon phones for my cousin (that is the only good network in her neighborhood) and usually it costs $200-300 for a phone that is 2 years old and not in best shape.
That is the only reason, I decided to buy a new phone and unless it gets stolen, I will take it to the grave.
You may be surprised to learn that often, CDMA phones can be flashed to run on other (less expensive) CDMA networks. Ask at Howardforums.com & XDA forums for more specifics. And it's entirely legal to do so.
FWIW, many folks have cellular needs now that make prepaid a difficult pill to swallow, especially regarding the poor data offerings.
Wow, it just so happens I'm looking at changing from an ATT contract-style to a pre-paid plan (probably from Straight Talk) right now! You're looking for numbers? I can give you some numbers (it's easy enough for you to get this same information, too, as it applies to your exact needs).
I currently have ATT, but have an old phone and am not under contract. I'm looking to get two smart phones, and upgrading to unlimited talk, text, and data.
From ATT:
Their best choice (for my needs) is the Mobile share plan. Unlimited talk, text, and data (ATT doesn't offer "unlimited" data so, I'll use 4GB, shared, as a comparison) is $150 / month ($70 for data, + $40 per phone).
I can get a Samsung Galaxy S4 from ATT for $200 (times 2) with a 2-year contract.
That works out to a total of $166.67 / month over two years.
From Straight Talk:
Not necessarily the cheapest, but seems like the best value for my needs and I can be on the exact same ATT network. Unlimited talk, text and data. They claim it's truly unlimited, but I see conflicting reports of possible "soft" limits placed on very heavy users. I picked 4GB from ATT as a comparison.
Service for $90 / month ($45 per phone, two separate plans).
You can buy a new Samsung S4 for around $600, sometimes less. Let's spread that out (times two) over the same two years.
That's a total of $140 / month.
The difference? At first, you save $26.67 per month with pre-paid, not a huge difference, but worth considering. But wait a minute, once the contract is over, then the difference is considerable at $60 per month. You're still paying ATT for the phone subsidy!
Also, there's more. From ATT, there are a ton of telecommunications and sales taxes, totaling possibly around 20 to 25%. For prepaid, you generally pay your local sales tax and nothing more. Let's say that adds another $25 to your savings with prepaid. That's maybe $85 per month savings.
With Straight Talk, if you pre-pay in larger chunks, you can get it down to $42 per phone. Sometimes you can get refills on ebay, etc. even cheaper.
Of course, if you're happy with a less expensive phone, you can save even more with the prepaid.
If you're the type that always upgrades to the latest and greatest phone, then the difference isn't quite as large, but if you already have a phone, don't need to upgrade frequently, or can buy a less expensive phone, then prepaid becomes really attractive.
Also note, there are differences in the details. ATT includes free tethering. Straight Talk forbids tethering altogether. Straight talk supposedly offers truly unlimited, but has more restrictions against streaming, etc. On the other hand, if you go above 4GB with ATT, the cost gets progressively higher to the point of absurdity.
This is just one example. You can do the math yourself with any big contract provider and pre-paid service. Generally, you'll get the same results.
Boost mobile has even more affordable pre-paid unlimited, but for me, their Sprint network has poor coverage. Your mileage may vary. If you're a light user, Consumer Cellular has very inexpensive plans, but they don't offer unlimited service. Republic Wireless offers a $19 / month unlimited plan, but routes your calls over wi-fi (not always, but whenever possible). It has performance quirks, but for the very budget-conscious may be worth considering.
If you are a very light user, especially if you don't need a smart phone, you can buy blocks of minutes and get your rates down to less than $10 per month, possibly a lot less.
I suggest you Google "best prepaid cell phone plan" or "$10 cell phone plan" or "cheapest cell phone plan" something similar. There are a lot of providers out there.
Do be careful. If you buy your own unlocked phone, there may be many versions of the same phone, even for the same carrier. Make sure you're comparing apples to apples.
Last, let me make a disclaimer. I don't work for any of these companies and have no interest in them at all. I do have ATT but haven't actually tried any of the other services that I mentioned.
That's a big issue for folks who travel away from urban areas of the U.S. You suddenly end up with no service and no option to pay for it.
Also, regarding data, you should see all the reports of throttling by ST before the so-called 2GB 'soft cap'. Some folks are still being shut off of their data completely. That ends up being a non starter for many, many users unfortunately.
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