Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Google Charges ETF For Nexus One On Top of Carrier's

Posted by kdawson on from the hand-in-the-cookie-jar dept.

dumbnose sends along the news that Google is double-dipping on the Nexus One early termination fee. Ars sorts out the double dose of fine print from Google and T-Mobile. What it boils down to is, if you give up on your Nexus One between 14 days and 120 days after the sale, it will cost you $550: $350 to Google (automatically charged to the credit card you used to buy the phone) and $200 to T-Mobile. After 120 days the Google fee goes away and after 550 days the T-Mobile ETF begins prorating. A poster on Dave Farber's email list provides another perspective on the "restructuring of the handset premium."

2 of 165 comments (clear)

  1. Early termination fee (ETF) by Chris+Pimlott · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's customary to explicitly define the acronym before its first use in the main body.

  2. Re:Separate handset and communications charges by RManning · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you buy the phone on a contract, you pay $80 a month. If you buy the phone without a contract, you still pay $80 a month.

    I have an unlocked Nexus One. T-mobile has two separate types of plans: one with a subsidized phone and one if you provide the phone yourself. For me, I pay about $20 less per month then if I had gone the subsidized route.

    I believe T-mobile is the only major carrier in the US that does it this way.