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Verizon starts requiring 365 days of paid service before it will unlock phones

arstechnica.com

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Re: Verizon starts requiring 365 days of paid service before it will unlock phones

#111

Post by miki123211 »

Unpopular opinion. SIM locking is actually good.

If a carrier cannot trust you (especially due to bad credit history), they can't sell you the phone you want if you don't pay outright, and many people aren't able to do that. SIM locks are basically "repossessions but for phones." Nobody argues in good faith that banks shouldn't be allowed to evict you if you don't pay your mortgage, and that's effectively what a "no SIM locks" policy does for phones.

To make things even worse, it's far too easy for fraudsters to buy a phone using a stolen identity, never pay a single installment, and instantly sell it on the second-hand market. For SIM-locked phones, the carrier can brick the phone until it is fully paid of, so that kind of fraud is not possible.

Sim locks do enable some abuse, particularly around roaming fees, as you're not allowed to swap your SIM when leaving the country. However, They're a blunt tool unsuited to the 21st century internet-enabled smartphones. One could imagine a mechanism where the carrier is still allowed to brick the phone in case of fraud, but there's no actual SIM lock.

Re: Verizon starts requiring 365 days of paid service before it will unlock phones

#113

Post by digiown »

plagiarist wrote: post #7

Pocket-sized devices with more computing power than we could have dreamed of as children, and society has somehow allowed it to become a completely miserable experience. I'm part of the problem. But I won't be (as much) after I get a used one and put Graphene OS on it.

Be careful about used Pixels. The Verizon and probably other carrier branded versions do not allow bootloader unlock at all, even after the modem is no longer locked.

Re: Verizon starts requiring 365 days of paid service before it will unlock phones

#114

Post by dpark »

drozycki wrote: post #99
dpark wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In this case you’ve switched providers, though. Might be a good idea but doesn’t say anything about whether, e.g., ATT will lower your price if you bring your own phone. I’ve read that these virtual networks also get lower prioritization so you can get low bandwidth when the higher tier users are active. Not sure how accurate that is.

Broadband Map tracks priority levels for the big three US carriers' plans and the MVNOs they support. I paid $225 promo pricing for one year of Visible+ Pro with unlimited priority Verizon data and all taxes and fees included ($18.75/mo), so I can pay full price for a flagship phone and end up ahead of any carrier phone deal. https://broadbandmap.com/priority

That’s a useful resource. Thanks.

Re: Verizon starts requiring 365 days of paid service before it will unlock phones

#115

Post by zamalek »

joecool1029 wrote: post #63
zamalek wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, it was really difficult to get it unlocked after 60 days: you had to know the special password "for travel."

Not true, iPhones were unlocked automatically after this 60 day timeframe. My gf has been using a 14 pro max previously financed from verizon on t-mobile since just outside that timeframe. Here’s another fucked up policy that’s about a year old from T-Mobile: I very rarely financed phones direct through T-Mobile. My 15 pro max will be the last since I had to fight them for a device unlock prior to paying off in full.…

Maybe that's something Apple made them do? Certainly wasn't the case with Android.

Re: Verizon starts requiring 365 days of paid service before it will unlock phones

#116

Post by mullingitover »

JCattheATM wrote: post #107
mullingitover wrote: post #18

Buy your own phone like everyone’s saying, but also use an MVNO instead of setting money on fire paying the major carriers. The better MVNOs even have multiple carriers and allow you to switch at any time.

Honestly everyone should just use T-Mobile Connect. They make it very hard to find on their site, but it's their true prepaid service, cheapest plan is 5GB of data and unlimited calls/texts, and it won't a lesser priority like MVNOs are. The fact that people pay over $100/month for a phone bill is truly a uniquely mind-boggling American thing.

> and it won't a lesser priority like MVNOs are.

Depending on the MVNO you can get first-class priority data (my plan has it), but also this stuff has never made a difference in my experience. When I was on 'lower priority' data the differences in speed weren't noticeable if I had service at all, and in the cases where I was at some event where there was a lot of devices contending for access to the tower, nobody was getting service.

Re: Verizon starts requiring 365 days of paid service before it will unlock phones

#117

Post by b00ty4breakfast »

userbinator wrote: post #50
b00ty4breakfast wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's a lot easier to pay smaller amounts over time than it is to pay a large lump sum, even if it is technically less after x number of years. Delayed gratification etc, but also sometimes folks need a phone and can't put off the purchase until they save up the upfront price. T

but also sometimes folks need a phone and can't put off the purchase until they save up the upfront price. Whatever happened to planning ahead? No wonder things are the way they are.

It's easy to forget this place is populated with upper-middleclass skilled professionals that probably haven't lived economically precariously in years, if ever.

For some folks out there, planning ahead is "will I have enough money for groceries next paycheck?". There are cheap phones, and I agree that folks are careless. But there is also a concerted effort to encourage this kind of behavior because the economy is built on this kind of dumb consumer spending and debt.

Re: Verizon starts requiring 365 days of paid service before it will unlock phones

#118

Post by plagiarist »

digiown wrote: post #113
plagiarist wrote: post #7

Pocket-sized devices with more computing power than we could have dreamed of as children, and society has somehow allowed it to become a completely miserable experience. I'm part of the problem. But I won't be (as much) after I get a used one and put Graphene OS on it.

Be careful about used Pixels. The Verizon and probably other carrier branded versions do not allow bootloader unlock at all, even after the modem is no longer locked.

Thank you, I appreciate this a lot. That sure is enraging to know though.

Re: Verizon starts requiring 365 days of paid service before it will unlock phones

#119

Post by analog31 »

analog31 wrote: post #34

Interesting coincidence. I just ordered a new Tracfone for 50 bucks. I had assumed the unlock policy was 1 year. The same phone, unlocked, was much more expensive. Strategically, I figured that after being a Tracfone customer for well over a decade, I probably wouldn't get around to switching for yet another year, so I'm OK.

Well, I don't know if people ever look at old threads, but I had an inspiration, and decided to unlock my old phone before switching to the new one. Tracfone made it utterly painless. Now I have an unlocked phone should I ever travel to a faraway place and need to get a local SIM card.

Re: Verizon starts requiring 365 days of paid service before it will unlock phones

#120

Post by userbinator »

JCattheATM wrote: post #106
userbinator wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not sure what the Android situation is in comparison. If you have root, you can easily unlock the modem and keep it unlocked.

If you don't have the key, how? I browsed XDA forums a lot in the past to try and ulock and old phone, and there didn't seem to be any way. All of the guides ended up being nonsense. Someone above said you need the NCK code which is generated from a secret only the carrier has - how does having root get around this?

how does having root get around this?

The lock is basically implemented as an "is the SIM's carrier on a whitelist" check, which can obviously be patched out or modified arbitrarily once you have full access to the firmware which root does. It's important to remember that the lock is entirely on the phone's side, to prevent it from connecting to any other carrier than the one it's locked to. A carrier can implement an "official" unlocking method essentially as an app that runs on the phone to validate the unlock code, but that is no obstacle to root.

If you jailbreak an iPhone, the lock is also easily removable in the same manner.

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