On America, Cellphones and American Telecom Carriers

I don’t understand this. Isn’t America supposed to be the most developed country in the world? Or, at least, a member of the top echelons of developed countries? Why is it then that Americans are subjected to a widespread practice of locking customers to the carriers by releasing handsets exclusively partnered with them? Why is the ringtone industry such a hugely successful one, with people having to pay a couple of bucks for thirty second clips of songs (when the song itself is available for $0.99 or less)? And why, oh why, do you have to pay for incoming text messages?

Here’s the situation in India:

1. Except for RIM (which chose to partner exclusively with Airtel first and then with both Airtel and Hutch, now acquired by Vodafone, for the Blackberry), no other handset vendor sells phones locked to carriers on the GSM network in India. The iPhone is another exception and I hope and pray this doesn’t turn into a regular practice. Even the CDMA consumers are now being offered a lot of choice, with SIM based CDMA phones being released.

2. I, for one, don’t know anyone who’s ever paid for a single ringtone. You buy the songs, rip them onto your computer and copy them to your phone. After that, you’re free to set any of them as your ringtone. Why should you have to pay again for a song, one that you’ve already paid full price for and legally purchased once, just to be able to have it play when someone calls you?

3. On a phone bought anywhere in West Bengal, even in the smallest town of the large state, you enjoy free incoming calls throughout the state, wherever you may be. As for SMS, not only do we enjoy free incoming SMS throughout the country, most carriers have ridiculously low rates for sending text messages too, some even as low as free.

The Telecom Regulation Authority of India (TRAI) strictly forbids any carrier from selling phones locked to contracts in the country. If some carrier were to get inspired by the States and started charging for receiving SMS messages, 'specially all those junk advertisements, there would be mass outrage—not just a lone tech columnist resignedly expressing his annoyance and surprise on an online publication. In a country like the U.S.A., where people can probably sue a stray dog for trespassing on their property and make some money out of it, it’s a wonder that people put up with such treatment.

Most subscription based services in the U.S. seem to be based on the idea of making it cheap and easy for the customer to opt in, very expensive to keep the subscription (whether or not it is used), and extremely cumbersome to opt out. It seems that all such services have been designed keeping the shortsighted customer in mind and, surprisingly enough, they seem to be raking in the money with no end in sight.

My question, therefore, is simply this: why is it so? Why put up with this madness? Obviously, customers in the U.S.A. willingly and happily give in to the temptation of the low price of entry (in some cases, even free) of subscription services and thus, the carriers keep coming out with even more expensive options, leeching their customers like its their birthright. The RIAA is another example of an entity that treats its customers like honeypots they can keep raiding as and when it strikes their fancy. Is there something I’m missing here or is India really better in this particular aspect of modern life and the developed world?

[Disclaimer: This is not a tirade against U.S.A. or its citizens. I’m just an outsider, trying to make sense of the business practices prevalent in the country. If I’m wrong about anything, please feel free to correct me. At least this one time, I’d love nothing more than to be proven wrong. Please do not use this as an excuse to launch a flame war, particularly against other countries and their citizens.]