What happens when you create something so popular that it takes attention away from pretty much anything else going on in the world? Congress happens, of course. Democratic Representative Edward Markey from my own home state of Massachusetts and chairman of the House subcommittee on telecommunications, is angry about the iPhone. Well, about AT&T’s termination fee, anyway.
“[The iPhone is a] Hotel California service. You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave—you’re stuck with your iPhone and you can’t take it anywhere.”Hey Ed, if you want to get the young’uns up in arms about their newfangled iPhone, you might consider quoting something a little more contemporary than The Eagles.
Also, you might want to look into your own cellphone contract, as pretty much every provider insists on contracts with early termination fees, unless you’re using prepaid service (which you can do with the iPhone in some circumstances). It’s an annoying practice, that’s for sure, but pointing a finger at the iPhone smells a bit of political haymaking. If you want to abolish mandatory cellphone contracts, I’m all with you—but don’t make the iPhone a scapegoat.
[via Digg]
Judging from the quote, he's upset about the exclusive service provider, not the cancellation fee. You can cancel you at&t service, but you can't go anywhere else. It is anti-consumer, it's also technologically required (for visual voicemail at least).
I think the point he's making is that even though you can pay the $175 termination fee, you still can't use your iPhone on any other carrier for 5 years. The problem has to do more with the long exclusive contract rather than termination fees, although both suck.
Edward Markey is right. If you do not own a notebook an activate your iPhone there, you can not travel very far. The only way to backup your data is on the PC you activate it.
Without a contract with AT&T, your iPhone will render useless. If you want use any other GSM phone with more than one provider, you can go for a unlocked one.
Is this all neccessary? No. Who is responsible for this? I would say, it's the maker of the iPhone...
Um, why all the whining about Cingular/AT&T being the exclusive carrier all of a sudden? Wasn't Cingular the exclusive carrier for the RAZR when it first came out? What other phones have been/are exclusive to certain carriers? Where was the hue and cry then?