German Carrier Paying 600 Euro Bonus for iPhone Switchers

Wow. Just... wow.

I wonder how long you have to sign up for?

Actually debitel is more a MVNO than a carrier - they resell subscriptions from all major carriers.

This move is great for consumers and finally brings back the free market conditions Apple did try to surpress.

[LIST]
[*]People can buy into all plans, including T-Mobile
[*]People that already have free hotspot access because they pay for it with their Telekom landline, do not need to pay for it again
[*]People talking a lot and using little data can save big money - a domestic flatrate and a small data package from T-Mobile cost less through debitel than the Complete XL package from T-Mobile
[*]Mostly younger people sending tons of SMSs can save substantially
[*]debitel does handle changing of tariff plans a lot more flexible than T-Mobile, especially iPhone customers get lousy service (cannot even change freely between the 3 iPhone tariffs)
[/LIST]

This business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it.

- Admiral Josh Painter

Just goes to show what a little ingenuity can do!

will these other proveders be able to offer visual voicemail. Or just t-mobile???
was that part of the court ruling?

will these other proveders be able to offer visual voicemail. Or just t-mobile???
was that part of the court ruling?

As per now, not even people buying a T-Mobile tariff through debitel will be able to access visual voicemail, because it is exclusive to the T-Mobile iPhone tariffs (not offered by MVNOs). I do not know what the patent situation is, but I would bet that Apple has this protected. As long as they hold on to their exclusivity model, they will certainly not license it to competitors - but things might change fast. Not a single market outside the US is favouring these exclusive deals and deliberate tying of device and service - in Asia they will not even get a nod.

As somebody who has voicemail always deactivated - I do not call back - I really do not care for that feature, and a lot of business people don't. Call-redirection is offered by every carrier here - let the secretary have it.

Apple will acknowledge at some point (without saying it, but by changing conditions) that the rest of the world is different and that they limit their success instead of supporting it.

The iPhone has recently been tested by the German Xonio.com site, one of the most important resources for people investigating mobiles. The iPhone did not impress - it is now on rank 78 of their all-time list (http://www.xonio.com/artikel/x_artikelunterseite_20443109.html - led by several models that are years older.

With rankings like that, T-Mobile runs out of selling points for talking people into an overpriced long-term contract. And as the sales figures from the UK indicate - they will have to bundle free Ferraris soon...

P.S. No, that was not and cannot be part of a court ruling - the court can ensure fair competition by disallowing mandatory vertical bundling - it cannot tell a company to give it's intellectual property to others, unless - in distinct cases - there is a monopoly. As the iPhone is not the only phone on the market (far from it) - this is not a monopoly.

You are about five hours late... :p

You are about five hours late... :p

Unfair! You have to consider the time difference :eek:

Unfair! You have to consider the time difference :eek:

Pffft... when I posted this, it was bright day in the USA. :p

Wow, lucky Germans!