The difference between phones, and all other products, is that phones don't work unless you're currently in a business relationship with some telecom or another. It's a bit more like selling someone a nuclear reactor—they're beholden to your rules as long as they have no other source of fissile materials.
In 15 minutes, with 15 euros, I could be out the door and have a new 'business relationship' with a different telecom provider. It's not that big a deal: you just pop in a new sim card.
Sure, in the US people have all these locked up phones, but that's the price you pay for getting subsidized hardware.
Indeed, that is the elephant in the corner of the room. One might almost say the typical consumer doesn't understand the difference between free and in speech and as in beer...
Higher rate my foot. Cell phones in Switzerland and Germany are crazy expensive. It costs people like 0.20 cents to call someone with a phone, and I pay like 0.25 cents or something. When I used to have a phone in Germany, I used to spend upwards of 90 euros a month calling like I was used to in the states, where I basically have as much calling as I need for $50 (including tax and all that sneaky bullshit). Cell phones in europe are a little cheaper if you don't talk much, but if you really want to use it as a primary phone, they are insane expensive. Thats why everybody texts like crazy here, but even texts are expensive.
How much do you call to get your bill up to 90 euros?
In Finland, 3000 minutes of talk time and 3000 text messages costs about 38 € on a major operator. You can often get a switcher discount to bring the price further down.
On one hand clever, on the other hand, misjudging the probabilities of personal danger is subject to 2 or 3 common cognitive biases, so the public everywhere always has been ignorant of the true hazards.
