Comment here in Italy.... (Score 1) 925
I can just talk for Italy and how the cell phones marked have evolved here.
Several years ago (early 90s), we passed from a system that technically forced us to bind the number to the phone (ETACS) to a digital one (GSM) that let us change the phone retaining the number (SIM) and vice versa.
This freedom of changing phone without too much hassle or changing the provider without renouncing to the "hardware" (the possibility of retaining the number while passing from a company to another is just a more recent thing) gave a big stimulus to the market, with main operators chasing each other lowering the fees more and more.
To get the edge in the market they kept adding features, with the consumer benefiting the most from this challenge.
UMTS licensing became a giant business for national governments here in Europe with telcos burning several hundred of millions of euro just to get the right to support that standard on their cellular networks - a big expense, yet right now I wouldn't even consider a provider not furnishing me HDSPA support, (we call it Super UMTS for marketing reasons) figure UMTS (yet it seems that for iphone buyers EDGE/GPRS suffice).
Only recently some companies are offering phones here in Italy, but just as benefits/prizes for using their networks - Offering a phone with usage fee, bounding at a contract for several years the customer is unthinkable.
To keep vital our market the italian anti-thrust agency has made several actions, maybe you need to awaken your anti-thrust agency to make the market fluid again?
Several years ago (early 90s), we passed from a system that technically forced us to bind the number to the phone (ETACS) to a digital one (GSM) that let us change the phone retaining the number (SIM) and vice versa.
This freedom of changing phone without too much hassle or changing the provider without renouncing to the "hardware" (the possibility of retaining the number while passing from a company to another is just a more recent thing) gave a big stimulus to the market, with main operators chasing each other lowering the fees more and more.
To get the edge in the market they kept adding features, with the consumer benefiting the most from this challenge.
UMTS licensing became a giant business for national governments here in Europe with telcos burning several hundred of millions of euro just to get the right to support that standard on their cellular networks - a big expense, yet right now I wouldn't even consider a provider not furnishing me HDSPA support, (we call it Super UMTS for marketing reasons) figure UMTS (yet it seems that for iphone buyers EDGE/GPRS suffice).
Only recently some companies are offering phones here in Italy, but just as benefits/prizes for using their networks - Offering a phone with usage fee, bounding at a contract for several years the customer is unthinkable.
To keep vital our market the italian anti-thrust agency has made several actions, maybe you need to awaken your anti-thrust agency to make the market fluid again?
