Imagine if they just gave you the phone, no contract. Someone is eating that cost. In the US, you get a subsidy on the phone, but you also get locked in. That's how the industry works and no one really does anything different (TMobile tried for a while).
If you buy the phone outright, T-mobile no-contract plans work out to cost less than subsidized contracts, as it should be. The other carriers want 2-year lock-in so bad that they refuse to offer different terms when you own the phone.
Comments
Imagine if they just gave you the phone, no contract. Someone is eating that cost. In the US, you get a subsidy on the phone, but you also get locked in. That's how the industry works and no one really does anything different (TMobile tried for a while).
If you buy the phone outright, T-mobile no-contract plans work out to cost less than subsidized contracts, as it should be. The other carriers want 2-year lock-in so bad that they refuse to offer different terms when you own the phone.