Cell phone carriers in the United States of America practice a variety of techniques by which they raise revenues at the expense of the consumer.
A) Locking Devices: Cell phone companies employ technological barriers which impede the consumer's ability to use their phone with other carriers. Carriers should be required by Federal law to ship all phones unlocked, or at least unlock *any* phone upon request of a consumer.
B) Overages and Charges: Carriers in the United States tend to add all kinds of hidden fees. Worse, exorbitant data fees are completely arbitrary. (A cell plan should be $30/mo for unlimited everything.) A gigabyte of cell data costs about $10. The same space on a hard drive space costs roughly 7 cents. The Federal Government should more closely regulate cell phones.