That would be all well and good, except for the fact that the mobile phone makers "hitch" their premium phones to a specific carrier (at least in the US). And conversely, the carriers have but one premium phone:

• Verizon - Blackberry Storm
• AT&T - iP0wn3d
• T-Mobile - N900

What does this mean to us as mobile phone users? We have but a few choices:

1. Carry two mobile phone plans. In order to get the best price on the devices, a two year plan.
2. Buy an unlocked phone at full price, thereby negating the benefits of the carrier subsidizing the phone
3. Cancel one carrier and take up with the carrier that has the phone you desire. This ranges between $175 and $200 early termination fee per line with the old carrier.

Option 1, figure a phone plan with data would be anywhere between $100 and $200/month. So for the sake of argument, let's say the low end of the range. Thats still $1200/year, plus the cost of the N900.

Option 2 would be a flat $700. If you buy one from TMobile, you have to worry that it will be crippled on AT&T's network.

Option 3 is the same as option 1 plus $175/line (in my case 2). The other thing is that you would wind up doing this every 1 or 2 years as the phones change among the carriers.

--vr

So regardless of which way I go, the N900 will cost me something close to $1000 at a minimum. And regardless of how many years you have been with a carrier, you will get charged with this. When I switched over to AT&T from Verizon, I had been a VZN customer for 6 years, but they still tried to charge me for early termination.

This is why the carriers and manufacturers annoy me.

Exactly the same boat I am in. Whats more, for me, is that my blackberry is flaky, so I need to replace it. Of course, if I do, that stretches my contract out to another 2 years. 1 year warranty for phone hardware, 2 year contract.