I don't understand the article. I understand that the US mobile phone market is broken because there is too little competition between carriers, but in what way are the contracts perpetual?<p>You can get a cheaper plan if you extend your contract with two years, that's fair, the same kind of deals are common in Europe as well, but that only leads to perpetual contracts if you absolutely have to switch phones more often than every two years, right? So by being less tech-horny and waiting until your contract has expired, you will be free to switch provider freely, right?<p>And what's stopping people from always buying the phones full-price and refusing to bind their contracts? Are the talk and data-rates suddenly that much higher? Are people not valuing the freedom to switch more than saving a few percent on the rates?<p>Why are the US phone consumers consistently making the choice to bind themselves to a provider?