Most carriers will provide a phone or sell one at a discount.
More recently, the industry has favored looser alliances in which carriers sell tickets on each other's flights as if they were their own.
The carrier has been suffering heavy financial losses and selling assets to raise cash for its operations.
Other carriers sell used aircraft to operating lessors, also at a premium.
Here in the UK every carrier just sells every phone.
After about 60 days in storage, carriers donate the bags to charity or sell them to salvage.
My complaint is why are these carriers selling smart phones on watching video and other high data rate media when they plan to cap them?
By contrast, national carriers generally sell plans that offer a set number of minutes for a monthly fee.
While the carrier mostly sells various smartphones, other types of products are also available.
Are you somehow not aware that carriers also sell tablets and basically everything you said could be applied to them?