According to the Wall Street Journal, Verizon has announced a change to their policies on exclusive handset deals. Under the terms of the new policy, Verizon will allow handset manufacturers to sell otherwise VZW-exclusive models to small wireless carriers (those with less than 500,000 subscribers) after a 6-month period.
Now, we’re all for getting rid of (or at least shortening) exclusive handset deals. We’d love to be able to grab a Palm Pre on AT&T or an iPhone on Verizon. But this doesn’t do squat. Less than 500,000 subscribers? Great. Even MetroPCS, which is one of the smaller nationwide carriers, has over 6 million subscribers. Sure, this will help the handful of MVNOs still managing to stay afloat out there under the 500k mark – but then Verizon goes and tacks on a 6-month wait. Way to help the smallest group of people in the least helpful way possible, Verizon.
I’d like to see all phone exclusivity come to an end. It chokes the market and competitive incentives for companies.
+1. Anyone who says exclusivity agreements are good for the consumer (THE REASON WHY COMPANIES SHOULD BE IN BUSINESS) is feeding you a line of bull.
Same line of bull they fed the FCC a couple of years ago with phone number porting. Thankfully, the FCC didnt fall for that line of bull.