Mr Brown also had doubts that information would be deleted once its expiry period had been reached.

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This not only drives data revenues but also reduces churn, or the migration of smartphone users to competing carriers, as customers cannot change carriers before the expiry of the lock-in period.

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That leaves one, rather distant, hope: that, in the lame-duck period between the election and the next Congress, prompted by the imminent expiry of George Bush's tax cuts at the beginning of 2013, America's politicians will sit down and finally hammer out the grand bargain the country so desperately needs, with the tax increases delayed in exchange for sensible reforms to spending and the tax code.

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