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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

#61

Post by gricardo99 »

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.

That’s what I thought and did this for years. However, the major carriers do offer promotions and incentives that make the phones cheaper, sometimes significantly. e.g. of recent deal from major US carriers: iPhone 16 deal for $16/month for 36 months ($576 total) versus Apple store $699.

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

#62

Post by plorkyeran »

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.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they rip people off on cheaper phones, but for higher end phones the “free” phones are typically exactly the normal price of the phone split over 24 payments. Every time I buy a new phone I compare buying it directly versus via a carrier and it always comes down to which option currently has a promotion or sale I can take advantage of.

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

#63

Post by joecool1029 »

zamalek wrote: post #6
sillywalk wrote: post #2

"Verizon was previously required to unlock phones automatically after 60 days due to restrictions imposed on its spectrum licenses and merger conditions that helped Verizon obtain approval of its purchase of TracFone. But an update applied today to the TracFone unlocking policy said new phones will be locked for at least a year and that each customer will have to request an unlock instead of getting it automatically.…

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. I would have paid it off in full if they didn’t change their policy to kill bill credits if you do pay early. I threatened them with costco’s 90 day return policy if they didn’t do it since I run dual sim for coverage, they relented.

I am curious though, had I never had the phone unlocked, I wonder if Apple would have swapped in an unlocked board when they did my board swap for RCS issue?

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

#64

Post by bandrami »

autoexec wrote: post #59
rrdharan wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is often repeated but false - it’s not the vast majority, nor even a majority. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/11/19/bank-of-america-nearly-half-...

It just depends on who you ask and what they think living paycheck to paycheck means. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/52-americans-live-paycheck-pa... https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/goldman-sachs-study-fin... https://econofact.org/factbrief/is-there-a-consensus-that-a-... No matter if it's "Nearly half" or 60%, things are clearly far from good for most Americans.

Americans are, adjusted for inflation, literally richer than Americans have ever been at any point in history right now, at every quintile in the income distribution. If that's "far from good" I'm not even sure what that phrase means.

If the point is just that the hedonic treadmill means Americans will continue to be less and less happy as we get more and more wealthy, well, that's the problem we need to fix.

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

#65

Post by dunder_cat »

I'm glad I stumbled across this: life circumstances have allowed me go abroad for a trip the past two years. One thing I had forgotten about since the last trip were some of my group being unable to get one of the cheap prepaid data eSIMs because their phone was still locked to the carrier. I've been tempted to replace my aging iPhone SE 2022 (^1) with a trade-in deal and get a new phone, but it never occurred to me that would mean being forced to use AT&T's $10/day (capped at $100 in one billing cycle) "International Day Pass" during future trips until it had been paid off for long enough.

(^1) I wish I wasn't so tempted after ~4 years, but the battery health has dropped to 75% and the performance has suffered dramatically. A new battery is on the table I suppose, but I am split between just putting that money towards a new phone.

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

#66

Post by morpheuskafka »

Why is anyone even tolerating a carrier selling them a phone locked for a single day (unless it is free with plan or something in which case there's nothing wrong)?

If you're using an iPhone, buy it from the Apple Store, full stop. No reason not to. If you need financing they have that (ACMI). They also sell older models refurb (like new condition) to save even more.

For a cheap Android (Revvl 60 or whatever), they'll just give you another cheap one next time you switch carriers, right? They are basically e-waste after a year or two and don't get updates.

And basically the only flagship Android widely sold in America is Samsung which is also sold DTC, albeit only online, and sometimes has promos for direct purchase? Maybe not as much financing tho. The other OEMs either don't sell in the US, or have some DTC presence too (ex. OnePlus).

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

#67

Post by morpheuskafka »

Nextgrid wrote: post #47
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…

> I have read of some vendors selling iPhones that would be unlocked at first but lock themselves to the first carrier they see.

Yeah, there's no official documentation, but that's how the Best Buy ones are. I've seen it called "US Reseller Flex" and "SIM Out" policies. There are some shady websites that have a GSX login that will report the policy name, anti theft lock status, and service history if you put in the IMEI. The intent is to prevent having to keep separate stocks of identical hardware pre-assigned to each carrier you sell for.

IIRC, Best Buy isn't supposed to sell you a phone without at least adding it to an existing carrier account. They act as an agent of the carrier, not selling the phone standalone like Apple does. It's possible that someone could then resell it while in-box as a scam, but that's not what Apple/carrier intended.

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

#68

Post by fy20 »

plorkyeran wrote: post #62
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.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they rip people off on cheaper phones, but for higher end phones the “free” phones are typically exactly the normal price of the phone split over 24 payments. Every time I buy a new phone I compare buying it directly versus via a carrier and it always comes down to which option currently has a promotion or sale I can take advantage of.

You do realise that they make the money from locking you into their service? In other countries people pay a lot less than the US.

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

#69

Post by Semaphor »

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.

Huh? My Pixel 9 was free (late 2024) with a 20€/month 2 year contract that includes unlimited calls, SMS, and 5 gigs of 5G data. 480€ when the cheapest full price was over 500 (and then wouldn’t include the data or calls). Certainly not an American thing, and certainly not "significantly more".

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

#70

Post by MobiusHorizons »

gricardo99 wrote: post #61
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.

That’s what I thought and did this for years. However, the major carriers do offer promotions and incentives that make the phones cheaper, sometimes significantly. e.g. of recent deal from major US carriers: iPhone 16 deal for $16/month for 36 months ($576 total) versus Apple store $699.

Right, but what does the plan cost? If it’s more expensive than other providers and you are locked in for 36 months, that’s where they make their money.
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