5 Year Cingular Contract ending soon?

[boss1]

I guess the question I'm wondering is when the 5 year contract started. Apparently Verizon was approached in 2004 so if the contract started then it would have effectively ended in 2009. Also I remember seeing/hearing somewhere that 2009 is when the Cingular/Apple contract ends. So did the Cingular/Apple Contract begin in 2004? That could possibly be good news I suppose, for consumers who don't like Cingular.

 

[crees!]

I guess the question I'm wondering is when the 5 year contract started. Apparently Verizon was approached in 2004 so if the contract started then it would have effectively ended in 2009. Also I remember seeing/hearing somewhere that 2009 is when the Cingular/Apple contract ends. So did the Cingular/Apple Contract begin in 2004? That could possibly be good news I suppose, for consumers who don't like Cingular.

Reasonable thinking would have the start of the contract being when the phone is first available to the public.

 

[mkrishnan]

Reasonable thinking would have the start of the contract being when the phone is first available to the public.

I think the original poster is implying that the Cingular exclusivity deal might have been a blanket one that started with the ROKR/iTunes thing and predates the iPhone? I don't know that anything supports that.... Hopefully the iPhone isn't locked to them for 5 years. Please. They can't even decide on one name and stick with it.

 

[flashphire]

Yes, the iPhone contract with Cingular ends in 2009- and it is exclusive. So bad news for people in the US anyway that want to us a service other than Cingular in the short term. I imagine that you'll be able to buy a hacked\unlocked one to use with other SIM card providers like T-mobile.

I think that Verizon did a terribly stupid thing when passing up the iPhone. They should have known with Apple that they wouldn't have as much control over the hardware as they may have liked, but tough nipples- that's the rub.