Contract Phones and the Great Network Swindle

Copyright 2006 Michael Hanna It's familiar conversation amongst friends gathered in the pub on a Friday night. Someone got a new mobile phone which does this that and the other, but what a trauma they had to go through to get it. Their mobile phone contract was up for renewal and they were offered a package with 100 free minutes and 200 text messages per month. All well and good, but why is the same contract on offer to new customers with 200 free minutes for 6 months? Why am I, an existing network customer any different to a new customer? Why does my mobile phone contract have different rules and features than a new customer? Heads nod in agreement - we've all been there. The major mobile phone networks appear so desperate to compete with their rivals for the affections of new customers that they seem to neglect their existing customers. What the networks fail to realise is that once your mobile phone contract is up then you become a new customer yourself and suddenly the networks are all salivating over the potential of your custom. Phone contract offers pour from newspapers, billboards, online adverts - 200 free minutes, unlimited text messaging, the latest handsets all for