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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

#41

Post by Spivak »

kcb wrote: post #14
bandrami wrote: post #10

Having lived in a lot of countries over the past couple of decades, I can say this is absolutely something Americans do completely wrong. Just buy your phone at full price. The "free" phones cost significantly more than a full price phone.

My monthly plan payment would not go down if I brought my own phone.

HN apparently can't fathom that people pay for Verizon because the service is good. I get Verizon free through work and sorry it's noticeably faster than Visible. The discount plans aren't actually the same but cheaper. If you were going to be a Verizon customer anyway then the free phone is actually free. You don't get a discount for BYOD and the service is the same price whether you take the phone or not.

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

#42

Post by notamario »

koolba wrote: post #36

> AT&T’s policy allows unlocking of phones on postpaid plans after 60 days if the device has been paid in full, or after six months for phones on prepaid plans. T-Mobile’s policy allows unlocking of phones on postpaid plans after 40 days if the device has been paid in full, or after 365 days for phones on prepaid plans. If the phone is paid in full, what is the justification for not unlocking it?

Playing devils advocate…

In cases of fraud, it creates buffer time for the consumer who’s identity was stolen to notice and notify before the device disappears.

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

#44

Post by notamario »

teeray wrote: post #5

Can a carrier ever surreptitiously lock an unlocked phone, or is it only on phones financed or purchased through the carrier? For example, if I bought an unlocked phone and attached it to my Verizon plan, could Verizon lock it?

Technically possible

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

#46

Post by QuantumNomad_ »

bandrami wrote: post #10

Having lived in a lot of countries over the past couple of decades, I can say this is absolutely something Americans do completely wrong. Just buy your phone at full price. The "free" phones cost significantly more than a full price phone.

In Norway several of the mobile phone telecom operators sell phones on down payment plans that cost nothing extra compared to buying it cash up front.

It has been like this for several years and it’s great!

You can pay a pretty low monthly down payment over a period of 36 month.

As far as I’ve been able to tell, I don’t even have to enter into any binding contract for any phone plan to buy the phone this way. And even if I did have to do that the most they are allowed to bind me to is 12 months, by law.

Consumer protection laws in my country are fabulous :)

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

#47

Post by Nextgrid »

teeray wrote: post #5

Can a carrier ever surreptitiously lock an unlocked phone, or is it only on phones financed or purchased through the carrier? For example, if I bought an unlocked phone and attached it to my Verizon plan, could Verizon lock it?

Historically phone locking was done at the modem level via an NCK code - if a phone is supplied by a carrier the modem will come pre-locked and will only be unlocked upon entry of an NCK code which the carrier has the secret key to generate (hash(secret+imei)). With this system if the phone is not locked to begin with I am not aware of any way to toggle this mechanism remotely.

With smartphones however, the game has changed. Apple for example no longer locks their modems at all and instead rely on a software-level check as part of the "activation" process (at first boot where it also gets its client certificates/etc to talk to Apple services) - said activation policy can be changed remotely, and Apple are very cagey about their full capabilities. I have read of some vendors selling iPhones that would be unlocked at first but lock themselves to the first carrier they see.

It's unlikely Apple would ever enforce or change an activation policy on a phone purchased directly from them, so you should be safe. But technically, it's up to the phone manufacturer. I am not sure what the Android situation is in comparison.

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

#48

Post by rjh29 »

QuantumNomad_ wrote: post #46
bandrami wrote: post #10

Having lived in a lot of countries over the past couple of decades, I can say this is absolutely something Americans do completely wrong. Just buy your phone at full price. The "free" phones cost significantly more than a full price phone.

In Norway several of the mobile phone telecom operators sell phones on down payment plans that cost nothing extra compared to buying it cash up front. It has been like this for several years and it’s great! You can pay a pretty low monthly down payment over a period of 36 month. As far as I’ve been able to tell, I don’t even have to enter into any binding contract for any phone plan to buy the phone this way. And eve…

Yes but you will generally pay more for your monthly plan in those cases vs. buying an unlocked phone at full price and a dirt-cheap SIM like Lebara.

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

#49

Post by userbinator »

bandrami wrote: post #10

Having lived in a lot of countries over the past couple of decades, I can say this is absolutely something Americans do completely wrong. Just buy your phone at full price. The "free" phones cost significantly more than a full price phone.

It was also much easier to import cheap unlocked phones from abroad when the whole world used at most 4 frequency bands. Now there's several dozen and I don't think even the most expensive flagship phones support all of them.

To paraphrase a common phrase I've seen around here: The "G" in "LTE" stands for "global".

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

#50

Post by userbinator »

b00ty4breakfast wrote: post #31
bandrami wrote: post #10

Having lived in a lot of countries over the past couple of decades, I can say this is absolutely something Americans do completely wrong. Just buy your phone at full price. The "free" phones cost significantly more than a full price phone.

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.

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