I spent a little time over the weekend looking online for ideas on what my wife and I should do about our cell service. Both of our phones are (comparatively) old and are starting to have issues. However, I’ve been learning that we aren’t going to be able to take advantage of certain rebates on new phones without either changing carriers, losing some of our plan features (seven years ago, free text messaging and unlimited data were cheap to get), or paying significantly more to keep the same plan.
So, it was with some bemusement that I encountered this article at Slashdot:
“Gary Krakow from MSNBC is impressed with Motorola’s C116 phone only to find out that that the phone is not available in the US. The reason? ‘A very, very basic GSM handset that handles incoming and outgoing calls as well as SMS messages, the C116 is sold all over the world — except for the United States. It’s not sold here because it’s too cheap!’ The phone is targeted for emerging markets, where people don’t like to tie themselves into monthly contracts, and with little value proposition presents little interest to US wireless operators.”
It figures.
Strangely, the MSNBC article linked from the Slashdot story doesn’t make reference to the the phone being kept from the U.S. market because of lack of profit. I’d love to know whether Slashdot was engaging in sensationalism, or if MSNBC decided the goad at American cell service providers wasn’t appropriate.