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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

#121

Post by JCattheATM »

userbinator wrote: post #120
JCattheATM wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 a…

Can you recommend any good guides to read more about this? I was trying to unlock a Boost phone a few years ago, which was perfectly good and compact but unusable outside of Boost. I no longer have the need but still have the curiosity.

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

#122

Post by userbinator »

JCattheATM wrote: post #121
userbinator wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 a…

Can you recommend any good guides to read more about this? I was trying to unlock a Boost phone a few years ago, which was perfectly good and compact but unusable outside of Boost. I no longer have the need but still have the curiosity.

https://xdaforums.com/t/howto-root-required-remove-network-l...

https://xdaforums.com/t/removing-carrier-lock.3903352/

https://xdaforums.com/t/no-root-needed-carrier-unlock-carrie... (I know what the title says, but this procedure is generic to Mediatek and they are also easily rootable)

Look around that site in general, plenty of Android modding information.

Also see "SIM lock" here:

https://gist.github.com/sadiqsalau/865364b344c0b9cb1b418df8b...

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

#123

Post by JCattheATM »

userbinator wrote: post #122
JCattheATM wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you recommend any good guides to read more about this? I was trying to unlock a Boost phone a few years ago, which was perfectly good and compact but unusable outside of Boost. I no longer have the need but still have the curiosity.

https://xdaforums.com/t/howto-root-required-remove-network-l... https://xdaforums.com/t/removing-carrier-lock.3903352/ https://xdaforums.com/t/no-root-needed-carrier-unlock-carrie... (I know what the title says, but this procedure is generic to Mediatek and they are also easily rootable) Look around that site in general, plenty of Android modding information. Also see "SIM lock" here: https://gist.github.com/sadiqsal…

Thanks!

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

#124

Post by moi2388 »

rjh29 wrote: post #94
moi2388 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my country you do not. No idea how they do it, but the plan and buying the phone separate (iPhone 16 pro Max) phone costs about 300 more than the phone and plan combined.

That implies you are paying too much for phones then, since the mobile providers can apparently get them significantly cheaper. They may also be selling your data and pre-installing apps, but every country does that.

EU. They are not selling my data nor pre installing apps..

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

#125

Post by Nextgrid »

userbinator wrote: post #120
JCattheATM wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 a…

If we're talking NCKs it means the modem is locked, so you need a modem/baseband-level exploit. Root helps you talk to said modem but doesn't directly allow you to modify its firmware without some other exploit.

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

#126

Post by JCattheATM »

mullingitover wrote: post #116
JCattheATM wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Why would you pay for a service with the potential to be worse when the same product is available for the same price without that potential?

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

#127

Post by direwolf20 »

bandrami wrote: post #97
zeroonetwothree wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rent has risen about the same as wages over the last 40 years. So a bit higher than inflation but not so much that it’s less affordable.

Health care and education are the two that have really outpaced inflation, the trade-off being that basically all durable and consumable goods have run way below inflation.

Inflation is the rate at which prices rise. If things are getting more expensive faster than inflation, you're just undercounting inflation.

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

#128

Post by MobiusHorizons »

direwolf20 wrote: post #127
bandrami wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Health care and education are the two that have really outpaced inflation, the trade-off being that basically all durable and consumable goods have run way below inflation.

Inflation is the rate at which prices rise. If things are getting more expensive faster than inflation, you're just undercounting inflation.

Inflation is the rate that a whole basket of goods gets more expensive. At least that’s how CPI is calculated and it’s what I meant by it. Since that number is averaged across a bunch of goods and services, there will always be some that increase faster or slower than inflation as a whole.

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

#129

Post by userbinator »

Nextgrid wrote: post #125
userbinator wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 a…

If we're talking NCKs it means the modem is locked, so you need a modem/baseband-level exploit. Root helps you talk to said modem but doesn't directly allow you to modify its firmware without some other exploit.

Not really familiar with other platforms, but on Mediatek platforms the modem firmware is just loaded from the filesystem --- which you have full access to as root.

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

#130

Post by timpera »

JCattheATM wrote: post #126
mullingitover wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Why would you pay for a service with the potential to be worse when the same product is available for the same price without that potential?

Because it's not quite the same price. If you need more than 5 GB, Mint Mobile is quite cheaper than T-Mobile Connect for example.
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