[KMnO4]

I think the reaction is distrust that the manufacturers will play nice. If it costs them $20/phone average to warranty them for another 12 months, they may charge $50 more per sale.

A similar thing happened in Canada. A few years ago, a law was passed that barred 3-year phone contracts (with a new max of 2 years). In retaliation, nearly all phone subsidies from carriers have stopped. Ie, there’s no such thing as “$0 phone on 3 year term” in Canada anymore.

[foolmeonce]

> nearly all phone subsidies from carriers have stopped.

I find this great. The ability to differentiate on "free" phones was a barrier to competition on the service costs that allowed telecoms to avoid competitive pricing for decades.

My concern with the Spanish law is that it seems to ensure a functional, repairable phone physically but there is not a realistic way to ensure essential security updates across all the software involved.

[belval]

Not sure what region of Canada you are from, but as far as I can tell they just shifted from a contract model to a balance model where you amortize the cost of your phone using your monthly payments.

In the end what changes if how transparent they are with pricing, before it was 60$/month with a brand new phone and 55$ if you brought your own device, now it's. 55$/month and you can bundle a phone for 5$ more.

This is in Quebec.

[chrisseaton]

> In retaliation, nearly all phone subsidies from carriers have stopped. Ie, there’s no such thing as “$0 phone on 3 year term” in Canada anymore.

It's not a 'subsidy'. It's just a payment plan. Why get your loan from your phone company? I don't get why people wanted this in the first place.

[pydry]

>there’s no such thing as “$0 phone on 3 year term” in Canada anymore.

Why is that a bad thing?

When carriers subsidize phones the price is inevitably higher overall. It's little different to those $1100 now or "$100 per month for 12 months" ads.

[bennybob]

Of course it is, they are financing your phone which costs money. You are paying extra for the risk, inflation and interest.

[pydry]

Except it doesn't cost that much. It's mostly profit margin. You're paying extra for the illusion of free.

[cameronh90]

My Pixel 2 was actually cheaper through EE in the UK than it was to buy it SIM free.

It's never happened before or since.

[pydry]

When I worked in the travel industry some luxury hotels would agree to do deals where heavily discounted hotels would be bundled with flights.

They wanted to sell at < £X without the appearance of having sold a premium product so cheaply. Bundling with the flight hid the cost.

It's possible this happens occasionally for phones but I doubt it's common.

[martin8412]

Why is that a bad thing?