Mobile Phone Blues

I had some phone-shop talks about mobile phone contracts today, but, well, as it turns out, that is in no way straightforward, either. You might have guessed by now...

• AT&T: There is a deposit for foreigners, since they have no social security number and no credit history. You enter a two-year contract, and if you break that earlier, you pay an early termination fee. So well, so known and normal (except for that silly deposit maybe; but that gets refunded). However, the early termination fee is only related to the contract. Your device does not get unlocked for use in other networks. Moreover, if you cancel earlier than six months into the contract, you retroactively pay the full price for the device in addition to the ETF (which by itself would be high enough to bridge the gap).
• Sprint: More or less like above. But you don't pay the full device price when breaking the contract. And you can unlock the phone, as long as you stay on their network (which sounds pointless, but there might be use for this, e.g. long travel outside the US, covered by some foreign prepaid plan). But that works only after three months on their service. So buying a phone, unlocking it after three months, then cancelling the contract and paying an ETF after another month might be a way around that. Under normal proceedings, however, they also don't unlock devices, the ETF also covers only the contract. The missing link between ETF and device (unlocking) does not hinder the company to make the amount of ETF you pay contingent on the price of the device, though...
• T-Mobile: Doesn't offer contracts in the above sense any more, there only are contracts without any time frame and termination fees, and they come pre paid and post paid. Except, that is, if you are a foreigner (which implies a rather short stay in the US), then you have to enter a two-year contract for post-paid plans, complete with early termination fees. Yeah, they've figured it out.

Maybe I just go with a pre-paid plan, forget about the billing and get my last point of identification for the DMV by opening yet another bank account...