more on Locked In a Cell: How Cell Phone Early Termination Fees Hurt Consumers

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Ian Koxvold <ian () koxvold com>
Date: October 11, 2005 8:01:38 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: RE: [IP] more on Locked In a Cell: How Cell Phone Early  
Termination Fees Hurt Consumers


Professor Farber,

High levels of mobile telephony customer churn was (and still is)  
driven, in
the UK, by the expiry of a contract and availability of extremely good
introductory offers from all carriers (which would typically include  
a free
"upgrade" = a new handset).

Many carriers are now trying to retain profitable customers. If you call
your carrier, and ask for the PAC code (the code which will allow  
another
carrier to take over the provision of service to your number) then  
you will
often be connected to someone who has significantly greater negotiating
power than anyone you might have previously dealt with.

In my case, for extending my contract by a year, I had my monthly
subscription halved, and my provision (number of minutes etc.) more- 
or-less
doubled, as well as getting a new Motorola RAZR.

I could just as easily have transitioned to a "pay as you go"  
agreement with
my old phone, which normally involves buying telephone call credits in
advance but requires no subscription at all.

I think that our mobile phone service has been rather good, in  
comparison
with that available in the US, for reasons including population  
density and
the fact that mobile phones have their own area codes (which allows the
operators to charge incoming calls to the caller, on the basis that they
know they are calling a mobile phone).

Regards,

Ian K.






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