The end of the subsidised handset?
![david-meyer.jpg](https://www.zdnet.com/a/img/resize/4e0d2eda83f664c9ba1b2a8c087d894db6b69fc8/2014/07/22/0bd49813-1175-11e4-9732-00505685119a/david-meyer.jpg?auto=webp&fit=crop&frame=1&height=192&width=192)
Some interesting news regarding 3's upcoming tariff structuring - it seems that this time round the tariffs are going to be quite blatantly structured around whether you're getting a free phone or not, and different grades of free phones, at that. In a way, it's the same way things work now, but without the assumption that you're getting that expensive handset for nada.
As Fone Logistics' Julien Parven is quoted as saying: "This is starting to put some value back into the handset. The idea of £300 handsets being given away is ridiculous."
No kidding - as Nokia is so keen to point out with its N95 marketing, the smartphone is not so much a phone anymore, as a mini-computer with phone capabilities built in. Nice idea to be giving those away (it sure made me switch operators when I managed to get my Vario II for next to nothing), but it's clearly a situation that couldn't last forever.