This is ridiculous. If people dont want to sign a contract they dont have to, and if they dont want a cell phone they dont have to get one. Their are plenty of wireless carriers who dont have contracts, so if some whiner doesnt like contracts they can just go to those companies. I think we should give businesses the same freedom we give individuals, instead of taking away their freedom. If I dont want to provide a valuable service unless someone commits to a two year contract, then I dont $%@# have to! Why should AT&T;or anybody be obligated to offer a service without a contract? They dont HAVE to do anything. If every bar I go to reserves the right to refuse service to anyone, then cell phone companies should have the right to refuse service to people who dont want to sign a contract. Americans dont like signing two year contracts because they can barely stay married that long.

You must work for one of the contract hungry companies!!!!!

Here’s something to keep in mind though. AT&T;DOES allow people to sign up with no contract IF they pay full retail price for the handset. They’ve been doing it for years. They don’t advertise it, but it does happen if you ask for it.

T-Mobile now has their “Flex-Pay” deal that allows customers to get standard voice and data service without a contract, AND without a credit check. You basically have to pay for everything in advance. And again, you have to pay the full retail price for the phone, or you can bring in an unlocked phone.

As far as the iPhone goes, totally insane that you’re required to do two years in order to activate it, unless, you get pre-paid.

WS: You caught me red-handed. The hungriest of them all! I guess I am biased, my livelihood depending on contracts…but when I hear customers say, “Its not fair to make me sign a new contract!” I think, c’mon lady no ones making you do anything.

The wireless carriers have the power to offer their service with or without contracts, and many options are available already without a contract. For example, T-Mobile’s prepaid service is one of the most affordable and reasonable GSM services in the US. However, if you bring your own phone, or if you pay the full price of a phone, then the wireless carrier should not ask you to sign a contract. Why? Because for years, the carriers’ argument for contract is that they subsidize the cheap or free phones people get. However, when consumers pay for the phone in full, where is the subsidy? When the subsidy is removed, there is no justification for the contract based on their own reasoning. However, they may still require contract for other reasons such as being able to predict a stable revenue. In that case, the market force will let consumer make the choice, and most consumers will flock to the network that does not require a contract, provided the quality of service is equal.
At present, the network operators have control over your credit rating. If you don’t fulfill the term of the contract and you don’t pay the early termination fee, they can put a negative mark on your credit. So they have much more power in the form of protection. Even without a contract, if a customer gets a subsidized phone and terminates his contract early, the carrier can get its early termination fee.

Also, we should push for a law that requires carriers to offer an option to unlock customers’ phones. Either in the form of giving an unlock code for free, if the customer has paid for his handset, or fulfilled his contract; or charge a fee for those customers bringing phones from another network; or refer the customers to an independent unlocking company to get the phone unlocked.

As an employee of a mulit-carrier dealer… this simply will not work for us. We already have the flex-pay plans available at our store, and we do not make anything from T-mobile off of them. Since it has been offered, we have only been able to convince a handfull of customers to go with anything else. If our other carriers were required to do this, we might as well close our doors and kiss business off to the corperate venue.  Where we get our money is the contracts. If this does go through, you can bet you will see stores across the nation closing their doors with thousands of employees looking for jobs. As to unlocking phones…. I am all for that. If we have contract plans without subsidizing the cost of a phone, that means I get paid.

This is a great opportunity, I’m a sales rep for an AT&T;dealer and I agree you should be able to activate service without a contract if you don’t take advantage of a phone subsidy.  I wouldn’t get paid as much but I really would rather know that I’m giving my customers all the options.  Most of my customers are more than happy to sign a 2-year agreement for a discounted phone.  For customers that don’t want to do that though, I don’t see why don’t have a way to sell a no contract post-paid plan.  In Canada their contracts and service are ridiculous though, they are signing 3-year contracts.  I’ve never like contracts but I’ve always signed them because I want the cheap phone, most of my customers are the same way but if someone wants to pay full price for a phone I would be more than happy to sell them a no contract plan if available.  BD, you’re probably one of the reps that give us honest reps a bad name.  You’re probably telling customers they have to sign new agreements when they don’t have to, I do pretty well without being shady, what a loser.

FB, if you can’t sell a contract to the majority of your customers your store is doing something wrong.  Doesn’t matter about T-mobile’s flexpay, it’s great for those who don’t want to sign contracts but your guys just need to point out the benefits of the contract.  I wish AT&T;offered a flexpay service, our pick your plan is crap, I could definatly sell more pre-pay without losing any contracted customers if we had something like that.

This is political grandstanding under the guise of protecting consumers.  It will not pass as proposed, as it would result in the public, which is used to free or cheap phones, once the subsidies are removed, would have to pay $200-$300 for phones they are used to getting free.  It won’t happen.  In the US, the carriers have the burden of extending and maintain new networks and require the revenues to improve the mobile experience.

Apple was forced by law in Germany to sell unlocked phones, and sells them for $1,450, and even when you are using them on other carriers they are crippled…no visual voice main (carrier enabled) or iTunes activation.

There ain’t such thing as a free lunch.  TANSTAAFL!

I work for at&t;wireless and we do not offer no contract plans. If someone were to come in and want to start new service even if they own the phone allready it requires a two year contract. if you allready had a contract and it has been lived out then you are not required to renew it if you want to buy a phone only if you want a discount on the phone. I am cool with the no contract thing other then the fact we get payed on the contracts we sell

RW, You assume too much and you did not read my post very carefully: I make it clear to my customers that if they do not want to re-sign the contract, then all they have to do is buy the phone at full retail price. Therefore, it is ridiculous of them to act as though I am making them sign something. When I offer them the option of buying the phone at full retail price, 9 times out of 10 people choose to re-sign the contract, just as the above folks mentioned they would. I think an apology is in order on your part, unless of course you are morally okay with being rude, as long as you are “an honest sales rep.” ( in other words, it would be pretty morally arbitrary of you to be passionate about being honest with people, and yet totally fine with calling them losers)
FB: I feel ya man, alot of authorized retailers would be in trouble if contracts became a thing of the past. The carriers would have to either change the way they pay us, or alot of us would be out of business. Especially for the dealers who make all their money for signing people up for new service, it would be a crisis. I work at a dealer who makes all our money in features (text and such) so I dont think it would be the death of us…but I think ultimately especially the thousands of cell phone sales reps across the country would take a significant pay cut, and many of the small cell phone business might go out of business. That is alot of jobs.

to clarify, AT&T;does offer a non contracted plan, but you get less minutes for your money with our “pick your plan.” The rates for the non contracted plans are totally different than our contracted plans.

Hell yeah i agree!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It’s not like they were forced to sign the contract

at&t;offers all their plans no-contract as long as you pass a credit check. you simply buy a sim card and choose your plan. why credit approval is required i have no idea. for a few days on their website they offered the sim card with 2-year contract; they swear this was an error. also there is the 1-year option. smaller subsidy on your handset, short contract, earlier upgrade. Sprint offers a no-contract plan, too, but it’s terrible. 200 minutes per month with credit check, free nights and weekends for $40. and yes, pick your plan for at&t;is terrible too.

are you people stupid or something? This bill doesn’t change anything to the current contract policy except for the prorated ETF. If you want discounted phone with contract, it’s still there. This bill merely gives consumers the option that was not available before, the option to buy a phone at full price and a service without contract at a rate no higher than the contracted rate. Many of you argue that operators are offering no contract services. while that’s true many operators charge a higher rate than the contracted counterpart, usually 5 to 10 dollars per month for the same amount of talk time. In 2 years that’s 120 to 240 dollars. This bill will make that practice illegal. This bill is to protect the consumers. Why are you guys so against it?

One of the point’s that has been touched on lightly but not elaborated on is the COST of the phone.  I work at a AT&T;premier agent and people get upset when there isn’t a “free” upgrade or when they have to wait for a rebate.  While “full retail price” and “cost” are 2 different things, the perception is that that “these things are made of pennies on the dollar” in foreign countries…why should I pay $200 for it?  People don’t realize that the phone they get for $50 after rebate has a retail cost of $250 and a agent cost of $220…you can’t pay a sales staff off that.  Companies will will have a basic phone that cost’s $220 selling for $500….THEN who will sign up for service?

Some of us are against it because: in the bill’s zeal to “protect consumers” (ie: save them money) the bill takes away a business’ freedom to decide on the terms on which it will provide service. By ordering the wireless carriers to agree to give non contract customers the same rate that they give to contracted customers, the government would be taking away the business’ freedom. Calling it “protecting consumers” implies that the wireless companies are victimizing their customers…which they are not. They are offering services on their own terms, and if the consumer is concerned with protecting themselves then they have the glorious american freedom of taking their business elsewhere!
And of course, wireless sales reps have a vested interest in the issue, because when we get someone to sign a contract for ATT or Verizon or whomever, we get paid in between $10-$50 alone for getting them to sign the contract…which is nice! But if all someone does is buy a phone and commits to no term of service, their is no reason to pay us. they may as well get cell phone vending machines.

and of course the fear is, if non contracted customers get the same rate as contracted ones, then no one will want to sign a contract…but I am not sure if that would happen in America, because even the free cheapie phone retails for almost $150.

No CL, we’re not stupid, we just know what we’re talking about.  ETF charges are now prorated by AT&T;, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile already.  The difference is that the bill want’s to LOWER the amount of the ETF to reflect actual subsidy.  While I can’t speak for the other carriers, I know for a fact there is no additional per month charge on customer owned equipment on AT&T;or Verizon who I worked for previously.  This bill is NOT about helping thr consumer, this bill is about election year publicity…this bill is pure politics ONLY. 

People complain that you have to sign a 2 yr agreement with AT&T;when you get the iPhone, there’s a reason for that.  AT&T;paid a LOT of money to Apple to for 7 yr’s of exclusivity on the iPhone.  If it was just plain old unlocked and no agreement was required, people would simply buy it and go to another carrier…thats not the point.  What the return on AT&T;‘s investment be?  NOTHINGThats the reson there’s an agreement on it, plain and simple.

I dont see anything bad coming out of this bill, at least not from an AT&T;standpoint.  I currently work for the largest AT&T;authorized dealer in the state of Louisiana and AT&T;already allows customer’s to pay full retail price for equipment and activate service on standard 2 yr rate plans without any type of commitment. So no change there. If nothing else it will drive up ETF fees. Currently when starting a new 2 yr contract or resigning a current contract for another 2 yrs the customer receives a $200 discount off the retail price of a new phone. The ETF for AT&T;is only $175….so if the bill plans to make ETF’s only cover the cost of the equipment discount then AT&T;would actually have to raise their ETF to actually match the discount given for the 2yr service agreement. The bill isnt trying to totally discountinue 2yr plans…just giving the customer the option of paying actual retail price on the phone and going no commit for the service rather than getting the discount one would receive for agreeing to said 2 yr contract. Some people may want to pay 449.99 for a Blackberry Curve without a service contract….while some still may rather paying 149.99 for the phone after mail in rebates with a 2yr service agreement. I dont think it will hurt our industry as a whole…but like i said this is from an AT&T;point of view…im no expert on the other carriers.

JC: It sounds like you said someone can walk into your store and say, “I want the 59.99 nation plan for 900 minutes a month. I brought my phone, so I dont want a contract.” Is that right? I mean, I guess in POS.com or telegence or whatever point of sale system you use you can adjust the contract length, but I have never seen or heard of an AT&T;agent in any state signing a new customer up without a contract. Perhaps in some markets AT&T;allows it, but here in my state we dont do it. when someone comes in with customer owned equipment they get a minimum one year contract…hmm…I wonder if my employer didnt tell us that cuz they dont want us to do it..

BD: Its a fairly recent development. I’ve been here for almost 2 years and for the majority of that time on new acts a service agreement was required. Recently though, we’ve been able to start new service w/o a contract…its just not advertised and not something POS actually lets us do, it requires a call in to Credit and Activations….im not sure if its our market or a nationwide thing but i would assume the same would be true throughout the contry since our servicable market represents louisiana east to florida and as far north as kentucky..pretty much the southeastern chunk of the country. Im sure its not AT&T;‘s idea of the perfect sale….and definetly not your store owner / managers priority because the basis of the business is the commissions from 2yr plans and feature adds. I’d call your RAE if i were you just to see if its doable in your market but i know they let us do it here.

JC: I am a district manager for a indirect wireless company inside of a membership store. In the northeast this practice for activating a phone on AT&T;without a contract is not available at this time as per our AT&T;Regional Manager. It was stated earlier that this will help the customer, when the customer finds out that he or she will have to go to the corporate store and deal with them because we all our out of a job then I am sure they will be very unhappy, when the customer tries to make a phone call and can’t in many areas because of the profit that will be lost will make them very unhappy, when the customer goes to call 611 and finds that the average wait time is 40 minutes because all of the new customers can’t recieve help in the stores they will be unhappy. LONG LIVE THE CONTRACT AND INDIRECT DEALERS!

lol.. I personally would like to see contracts go the way of the dodo..  1 year contracts were fine for years…hmm. and phones were still cheap..  now there 2 years after number porting was allowed..  I can live with a one year contract for a discount… 2 years is getting rediculous.  The law should be a 1 year max contract.  whats the point of being able to keep your number and shop for a better rate when your stuck with the provider for 2 years.  as it stands now.. the phone are not worth as much as they list them for as regular price. .. they charge more for them so they can show you a discount and make it more worth it for you to sign a contract and lock you in.. not because the phone is worth anywhere near the original price.  and believe me the cell phone providers make plenty of money off there .30 min overages and high rate plans..funny t-mobile does just about everything for 20.00 less a month with more minutes.

as for afilliate cell phone stores that are not a corporate store.. they can go too.. who needs them?  Id rather provide my credit info to a corporate store who I can sue if they for instance lose my social etc (rather then mom and pop 1 store enterprises or even mall cart).. and the benefit of them is what exactly?  They are usually more of a pain then a corporate store.  the sometimes give you a free car charger.. woot another 5 dollar item that reatails at 29.99.  heck I can just go to amazon if I want to go that route and get $300 cash back plus a phone if I want the 2 year (used to be one) contract.  yeah so.. I say close down the mom and pop stores.. Il just go to a corporate store to play with the phone then order it from amazon for next to nothing.. but it would be even sweeter with just a 1 yr contract..

go away contracts, you’re horrible, you waste the sales staff’s time asking them questions and using their input and then not even intending to purchase from them, get a life.  I can’t even believe that you would say go away mom and pop stores, those are the stores who’s taxes support your local economy.  Another thing, some authorized agents are bigger than corporate depending on where you live, where I work there are only 2 dealers for AT&T;, corporate and us, we have 3 stores for every 1 that coroporate operates and our customer service is far better.  I have taken repeat customers from corporate just because of the service they got when they came in to buy a car charger.  I sell for AT&T;and so I need contracts to get paid but if contracts were done then I’m sure my company would find another way to get paid so I’m not worried about all this.  Also if they make ETF’s equal the subsidy then that will drive phone prices up.  Our stores sell most phones without contract sometimes up to $100 less than AT&T;does, we would have to raise those prices if something like tha were to happen.

It does sound like some of your markets have better offers than mine though, we can only activate post paid plans with 2yr commitments, the only time we could do 1yr committments is on migration, but our company would make a customer pay retail for the phone on a 1yr.  Wireless companies are getting pressure because of the industry, there’s alot of competition and the things we did to drive down prices caused other problems.  With all the shady sales staff out there, people are really getting into things sometimes that they aren’t aware of which is causing problems, if the sales staff does things right we wouldn’t have problems.  Also Sprint is probably giving most of the industry a bad rep, I have heard so many horror stories from Sprint that I have never heard anywhere else, I feel bad for their customers.

go away contracts :  (quote) as it stands now.. the phone are not worth as much as they list them for as regular price. (/quote)

do you think the car you drive is worth as much as you paid for it? do you think it cost ford or chevy or toyota nissan etc etc etc (insert car manufacturer here) as much to make the vehicle as you actually paid for it at the dealership? what about the tv in your home? or the computer you’re using to post? the simple fact of life is that in business there is a markup in direct correlation with the cost of the product. to use a statement like yours as a basis for argument is fruitless. Yes retail price on a phone is more expensive than the company paid for it…but thats no different than any other business out there. Even your beloved amazon.com is charging more than what they actually paid for the phone…otherwise they would go out of business. The thing about cell phones is that when you do sign a 2yr contract the price you pay for the phone is ACTUALLY less than what the company paid for the phone. Im not against giving the consumer a choice in retail price w/o contract or discount w/ contract…but when the same consumers who advocate no contracts complain about cost and markup then those people are just being ignorant to the rest of the world around them

AT&T;actually does offer service without an agreement if you pay retail price for equipment.  The free market should work this out, legislation is not needed.  If this was something demanded by many consumers then Verizon would make efforts to match AT&T;(as they do with many other offerings).  Government needs to stop meddling in stuff such as this.

yeah.. alot of cell phone dealers who stand to lose on here complaining…  don’t see much of the general public complaining about the contract hearings..  If your working as a sales rep for a cell phone store.. you got problems already.. more then just my browsing.. try getting off minimum wage and look for a real job.  If all the mom and pop stores went under.. it be doing you all a favor.  can’t live on minimum wage people..

jc,,,as for amazon.. usually the give the phone for free plus from $50 - $300 on rebates CASH BACK.. and they send it to my door… why would I waste my time at a cell phone store.. face it.. all the cell phone providers list there rate plans and phones online.. where you also can find tonz of reviews and peoples compliments and compaints about a device.  you can find all the info on the net you need..for free.. unless your one of the few who have no internet access then you prob cant afford a phone anyway.  what do you need a mom and pop store for?  youve already been automated out of a job..  face it.. it just has not come to completion yet… such is progress.

Like I said.. I could understand a 1 year contract… anything more is overkill.  it only became a 2 year contract because they can’t lock you into your number anymore.  also jon.. the free market wont work it out because ALL MAJOR cellphones collude by requiring a contract and not by coincidence.. all 2 year ones..(or you pay the highly inflated “retail” price).. a cell phone is a necessity ..  if all have a 2 year contract…theres really no choice other then which one to go with and be screwed either way.  If there was no contracts by law.. trust me.. the “retail” price without a contract would be half of what it is due to competition.  Its only inflated to make you think you getting a deal.  the only competion is in how much of a discount they will give you with a 2 YEAR contract.. most people won’t pay 500 for a phone.. they know that.. thats why the price is set so high..because they don’t want you to buy it outright.. they want you to stay on a contract and keep paying them there overages and high monthly fees.  then hopefully you will not be bothered with switching when your time is up.

(quote) jc,,,as for amazon.. usually the give the phone for free plus from $50 - $300 on rebates CASH BACK.. and they send it to my door… (/quote)

is this with or without a 2yr contract?

/end discussion

Go Away Contracts-  Use your otherwise well functioning brain: if we made minimum wage we would have nothing to worry about as far as this contract thing: we would have nothing to lose! But currently your overage charges and high monthly fees pay our salary! Thank you so much! A High school grad can sell phones for ATT or Verizon or T-mobile and make over 40,000 a year. With that said, although your attitude is annoying and obviously you are being rude for the fun of it, you are correct on some points: The full retail price posted is more than what the cell phone company paid for it (but not as much as you would think, cuz Motorola and Nokia need their mark-up too). Also, if all cell phone consumers knew what they were doing they would learn about the phones, shop online for the best deal, and get it without talking about it with me. Duh! The same is true with automobiles, home improvement, etc. Some people get into it and figure out the game, but most people have other priorities other than learning about cell phones and shopping online even though it would save them a crapload of money. Congratulations for beating the system as far as cell phones are concerned! I just wonder what other things you pay a crapload for becuz you dont know what you are doing…
Finally, you are correct in observing that “such is progress”. If contracts die and it puts us out of jobs, we will have to adapt and get a different one, just like if your industry changes (is it blogging?) youd have to change too…so its futile for us to bitch about the end of two year contracts, if things change then they need to and no one starves in this country.

Amen.. Isn’t 40k a year minimum wage?  No my industry is not blogging.. Im a porn baron… I think Ill be ok for as long as there are men on the earth with the need for visual stimulation and T/A to take it off…..  and Im never screwed on anything.. I ALWAYS come out on top… also I do buy my cars online…lol.. thats what ebay is for..  and electronics..  heck no sales tax online either..  why pay an extra 8.75 percent..but you are correct.. no one starves in this country.. its pretty hard to screw up..

This is ridiculous, what doing companys, forcing people for 2 years contracts and also if purchased anything from them. Instead provide better service there are make money with any tricks ! Twice bought cell phones and never got rebate back… I never will buy anything with rebate!! and get to any plan until the role will change.

Go away contracts- i am glad you are a wise consumer. You look at what will get you the best deal on everything and are shrewd because you have the end dollar amount in mind. Commendable. However (you will probably make fun of me and call me names and roll your eyes when i say this), but since you are so wise with your money, perhaps you could be wise when thinking about your soul. I dont think being a porn baron is a wise move as far as your eternal resting place is concerned. i am sure you make some serious bank, but this life is short and very soon you will meet God and he will judge you according to what you have done. Any smart investor knows you dont splurge for cheap pleasure only to have nothing at the end! But perhaps you are living only for this life and forgetting the next. As you roll your eyes, please consider the possibility that you are hurting the men you sell that smut to, hurting their wives and family. Consider the possibility that the only hope for your sinful soul is that Jesus the Son of God died on the cross for your sin (as i am sure you have heard before) and that you must turn from your current life and obey Him.
just know that ignoring God in this life is like putting absolutely nothing into retirement and depending on social security to take care of you.

In other words, will you come out on top when this life is over?

<rolls eyes>... :) interesting point of view.. but Im agnostic.  The problem with religon is it tries to say porn is bad… its not.  Its people choosing to do what they do because they want and like it.  christianity is basically a compiltation of all religons before it.  It takes heavily from the egyptian religon… and others.  If you want to see something interesting look on youtube for a video called zeitgeist.  its very interesting.  I could never see how people can blindly follow a book just because someone tells them its real with absolutly no proof whatsoever.  The truth is there is no god.. with things like september 11th and the beslan massacre.. or the crusades, the inquisition.. if there is one.. he doesn’t do much .. so who needs him..  yep I know.. but he loves you..lol..  You should actually be asking priests..how its going to feel.. when they have lived there life spreading “the word”.. the nothing..  sorry.. but there is more proof of space aliens then any god.  heck,, we can clone and create custom livestock.. doesn’t that make us god?

As far as Sept. 11th, genocide, and the like, I agree it is difficult to believe in a good and all powerful God when he obviously allows atrocities. Many people disbelieve in God because of the evil in the world, which is funny because it is precisely because of the existance of evil that convinces me their is a God. Their are things that people do that are just so obviously inherently wrong (even if it is “what they want and like it”). for instance, I have a five year old daughter. She is absolutely darling. And yet there are plenty of people in this world who if they saw her, they would jump at the change to abduct her, abuse her, rape her, and kill her. And it happens all the time. We see things like that and we know it s WRONG, EVIL. And then we rarely stop to ask “why is that evil? what makes it wrong?” Because as far as right and wrong are concerned their are only two options: Either their is no God, and our ideas of right and wrong are simply culturally determined and ingrained in us by our culture, or their is a God, and this God has created people and this world, and has established rules for what is right and wrong for people to do. If we choose to believe (or choose to act like we believe) that their is no God, then we are choosing to say “Darwin was right. We all evolved from a single cell organism, and we are just the children of a blob. We are just highly evolved monkeys, and therefore our lives are not inherently worth more than that of an ant or zebra. Therefore, it does not matter if i kill my neighbor or rape his daughter, because in the end all that matters is survival of the fittest. My morals are just social constructs.” And yet I find most people today are not willing to say their morals are just social constructs. Most people believe (or act as though they believe) that their are certain things inherently evil, morally speaking. Perhaps you are one of those people. And I think in order to be honest with ourselves and have an existence that makes sense to us, we have to choose whether we believe their is a God or not. In other words, if we believe in evil, we must believe in a God, or else we must admit our idea of evil is just a social construct and it doesnt really make a difference anyway. But if you are not willing to throw away your morals as mere social constructs, then it only makes sense to admit we believe in a God who instituted those morals, and to seek to know who He is and what he wants from us.
Because I know that lying, murder, and rape are inherently wrong, to be intellectualy honest i must admit I believe in a universal right and wrong and the GOd who created that law. And I do. As far as why he, being good, allows atrocities, I suppose finding the answer to that question goes with seeking to find out who he is.
As far as how priests will feel when its all over if their whole lives were a lie and their is no God…They will feel nothing, because their consciousness will cease when they die. If they spent their whole lives denying their desires and suffering at the hands of those who oppose them, then all they lost was some meaningless T and A and some comfort. But if you spend your life living for T and A without worrying about God, then if you die and youre wrong you have lost eternity. So in the end, living one’s life obeying God is a safer bet.
As far as cloning, we can clone, but we certainly cannot create life from non-life…in fact, life springing from non-life has never been observed scientifically…scientists cannot figure out how it happened. So i wonder how life came to be if their is no God…
Finally in regards to porn, porn destroys marriages. Just google it and you will find blog after blog and magazine after magazine of women mourning because their husband is addicted to internet porn, and the women feel horribly unworthy because their husband demands that they look like the airbrushed porn star and they cannot, heartbroken because their husband got laid off for looking at porn at work, and now he wont get a job and just sits around and looks at porn. Being a porn baron, you probably know its addictive. Men start out looking at some freaken hot girls, and then the more they look the more perverted their desires become, and soon they are looking at child porn and getting arrested, and even more willing to abuse children as a result of their visual stimulation.
As far as Christianity, their is plenty of evidence to support the probability of Christianitys truth, but it cannot be proven. In the end, one must choose to have faith, or not have faith.
If you choose to have faith and youre wrong, youve lost nothing. If you choose to not believe and youre wrong, youve lost everything. its called pascal’s wager. I didnt make it up!
I look forward to hearing your responses to the above. Thanks for just rolling your eyes and not throwing cuss words at me…perhaps yu believe its inherently wrong! lol

Here in Canada, the option to pay full price for a phone and not have to sign a multi-year contract has been around for years, and all the major carriers offer it.  And, lo and behold, not only are they still making a profit, but very, very few people are even making use of the option.  People want free phones, even if there are strings attached.

this is great , in my opinion there isnt a cell phone company in the world that should be allow to hold u to a contract . its bull$hit they all suck ( nextel , at&t;, verizon and so on ) the only reason for there contracts is to hold you to crappy service and over priced calling plans for two years . second the phones i recently moved from nextel to sprint since i was a excisting customer in their eyes i had to pay full price even if i signed a new two year contract so whats the point of the contract isnt that the reason for the phone at a cheaper price? anyone want to figure that out . the bottom line is the cable company and the phone company for land lines doesnt sign you to a contract why should these money hungry crappy service companys make you their bitch for 2 years . really open your eyes people they all suck , we should go back to the times of pagers , cb radios and ham radios . lets hit the companys where it hurts ( the dumb ass ceo’s wallet )

removing the contracts will increase competition for both plans and phones.  If you don’t think the cell phones will come down, look at the pc market.  Sure, it will put pressure on the big companies to provide better service and it might destroy the mom and pop market anyway (which is fine, send the indians home) but the consumer will benefit in the end

they need to end the contract because they do make alot of people pay full price 4 da phones and still wanna give them 2 year contracts. i think they should go to 1 year contracts, its better and gives the buyer more of a breather because two tears is to long when u have crappy service and high fees

I stumbled upon this article during a search to understand the motives for unethical business practices within the telecommunication industry. My story is probably akin to thousands of other customers who desire/seek nothing more than a fair monetary arrangement for services rendered. 

I was given a Sprint Treo (locked unfortunately) by a family member and was anxious to call Sprint for service to begin perusing through the myriad of features available on this model.

Lo and behold, Sprint wholeheartedly insists on a two-year contract! FOR WHAT, I ask?! I already own the phone. There’s no need for beguilement to recoup costs on a discounted product they never sold me. Why would I handcuff myself for two years? I’ve been using prepaid for a few years now and would never give up the freedom to stop utilizing a service if I choose to. I would love to tryout the Treo, but not for a guaranteed $2500 term agreement. What are they going to come up with next? “The Simply Indentured Plan”;  “More than just talk, it’s ten years of payments”.

From a business standpoint, scaring away potential paying customers with the “all or nothing plan” or “win-lose” scenarios prematurely limits a company’s market share. The unfortunate souls they are able to ensnare in contractual dragnets will be so desperate to rid themselves of their contract that they’ll fake death to successfully breach a contract.

I believe that the bill’s concept would ultimately aid the customer. The Com Barons would be forced to compete harder for our ever diminishing dollar which translates into This proposal is tailor-made for someone such as myself; i.e. customers who are willing to pay full retail prices for a phone or already has one that is compatible with their network. Would there be an oligopoly? Yes, but this is probably a good thing as long as it doesn’t end in a true monopoly.

BD you are a stupid ass mother fucker if i ever met one there are a lot of people that dont want to be in a contract 1 to 2 year contract because of the150 to 200 councilation fee that they add there becaus they want more more and more money and i dont think that 14 days is not a good deal to if you like the phone or service or if you dont like it because what happens when your on the phone and the call drops you got to call them again and some of the free phones they give you suck

How much do the independent dealer make from the cell phone providers per contract anyways?  Does anyone know that?

This is awesome. I am a college student who is very interested. Who doesn’t want an Iphone and use it on a different network! come on people who don’t want this, you all must work for phone companies.

I am also a college student and many of the phone companies such as T Mobile, U.S Cellular (which is only in Illinois I’m assuming), and at times the “raising bars” company AT&T;do not meet the network availability in certain places, therefore many people decide to change their carriers due to that and other malfunctioning reasons. In addition to that, many of the phones that these companies carry that require an individual to subject to a one or two year contract cannot even get the phones they desire because it is not in their price ranges, or such as the IPhone, has to pull more money out of their pockets for insurance, if they even get that! Point blank the big picture is that customers should not have to pay the ridiculous amount of cancellations because they are not satisfied with the phones at hand.