Alcatel, better known as TCL in China, is doing something that’s a bit unorthodox. They’re going to sell their new flagship phone, the One Touch Idol, directly to consumers in the United States. Instead of partnering with operators, they’re hoping that the device’s low $299 price tag will appeal to people looking to sign up for one of those prepaid MVNOs in an effort to save money.

Now yes, some of you will point to the Nexus program and say Google has been doing this for years, but again, it’s still something that’s quite rare. Nokia tried to do this over five years ago with their flagship Nseries devices, and they failed. Sony is trying to do this now with their 2013 flagship phones, and it looks like they’re failing too.

Can Alcatel succeed? Let’s look at what they’ll sell you for $299: 4.7 inch 960 x 540 pixel IPS LCD display, dual core 1 GHz processor, 1 GB of RAM, 8 megapixel rear camera, 2 megapixel front facing camera, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, and it looks like the 3G is capped to 7.2 megabits per second and will only support AT&T’s network.

You know what I’m going to say, right? For the same amount of money you can buy the Nexus 4. But I don’t want to ignore Alcatel’s efforts either. I want to congratulate them for trying something different, and I hope that the American wireless market eventually wanes itself off subsidies. It’s a dream I’ve had ever since I imported my first phone from Europe.