And he notes that Mesa Air Group, which operates primarily as a contract carrier throughout the U.S., recently signed a joint venture agreement with Shenzhen Airlines to create a Chinese regional airline.
That's looking more precarious than when it was signed, as the aircraft carrier contract heads towards sea trials in 2017.
It lost its exclusive contract as its carrier this year, when Verizon Communications ( VZ) and Vodafone ( VOD) joint venture Verizon Wireless began carrying the service.
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Attendees at the Apple event cheered on several occasions, hollering particularly loudly when a skinny Jobs took the stage, when the iPad's price was announced, when Jobs debuted the iBookstore and when it was announced that the iPad will be sold unlocked, without a mobile carrier contract.
Traditionally a player that has preferred going after high-value contract customers, the largest wireless carrier in the U.S. warmed up to prepaid subscribers over the holidays with a double-data promotional offer.
The rest of the world knows differently and the carrier model sits alongside the contract-free option quite nicely.
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Now, using IVF and a surrogate carrier, a gay man could contract for the creation of a child both legally and socially his.
T-Mobile earlier this month rolled out an entirely new set of service plans that it says are contract-free as a way to lure carrier-wary users to its network.
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American spokesman Bruce Hicks said the carrier could exit bankruptcy without a pilot contract, but would prefer not to.
That Toronto-based Rogers won the Apple contract only makes sense as it is Canada's primary carrier.
Over the past year, Bienenstock notes, the carrier has lost 8.9% of its contract customers and 5.4% of its service revenues, in a period in which the market has been growing.
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And with those who find that upfront cost cut by carrier subsidy which is recouped through the lifetime of the contract.
Smartphones require more thought given that it has to be tied to a carrier and the gift receivers phone may not have fulfilled the contract term.
The catch: Consumers can't easily take what would otherwise be an expensive smartphone to a rival carrier who offers a better price while the phone is under contract.
But in the case where a customer pays the full retail price or pays off the contract term, he should be able to do whatever he wants and select any carrier he chooses.
The carrier must subsidise this and get the money back over the life of the contract.
While the company still hopes to show net positive postpaid adds for the year after the phenomenal Apple iPhone 4S debut, the huge upfront subsidies that the carrier will have to offer its iPhone customers in exchange for a two-year contract will be a big detriment to its margins in the near-term.
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