That was definitely a man with a bone to pick. Good on him!
Freedom ™ at work again.
I don’t think I’ve had a locked phone since around 2012.
I’m guessing people still get them because they need financing? Seems like a poor choice most of the time.
Because a locked loader only really affects an absurdly small percentage of people.
That is a separate issue. This is a lock to prevent use with other service providers,
When I left my company, I had to get a new phone. When I talked to the rep, the phone cost was essentially free with a contract.
The offer was that Verizon would pay for the phone over the course of three years.
So it’s not financing so much as it was free with a contract. When I asked why this was, he said that it was due to how the market was. Everyone has a phone at this point so now cell service provides have to compete to keep people. So they are willing to pay for your phone so long as you are locked in with them.
I remember when carriers not just locked the phones, they also had custom firmwares filled with bloat and customized skins and even locking down features and all that shit. For example, I had a Sony Ericsson K700i and it had a disgustingly customized FW on it, and aside that it was ugly, I could only play MP3 files that I purchased through Vodafone. Sending them via bluetooth (or even with IR) didn’t work, the phone refused to play it back.
(Then of course I found out that Sony Ericssons were pretty moddable phones so I replaced the FW with an original one and that solved all my problems. For some reasons, the fact that I patched the FW with countless of VKP patches and even unlocking it with a patch, didn’t void my warranty so whenever I fucked up the FW beyond my abilities to repair it or simply bricked it, I just sent it to Vodafone and they fixed it.)
And they did this even when Android became a thing. (Though, it was a Vodafone branded phone so… it was sort of OK. (technically it was a Huawei though, also pretty moddable phone))
I will never buy a phone directly through a carrier instead of the OEM. They are offering me some nice discounts right now, but I have no interest in a phone where I can’t unlock the bootloader. (Or the carrier lock!)
That’s the thing though, I’m pretty sure all of them have an unlocking requirement at some point from the FCC. Depending on how you read the law that should include the bootloader. Verizon especially is screwed on that regard since they can’t “restrict what applications a handset user can use on the device” (paraphrased from their agreement). I’m pretty sure if I bought a Pixel from Verizon and wanted to use GrapheneOS on it, their bootloader lock is preventing that and they’re in violation of the terms of the agreement.
If we had a more favorable FCC it would be trivial to start a class action over that could literally include most Verizon customers (and second hand device buyers) since they made that agreement with the FCC. The damages would probably be $50-100 (time and effort of trying to get Verizon to do their fucking job) per device up to the cost of devices (they’re not fit for purpose). Like either way that’s either a substantial blow up to a death sentence for them.
I can’t understand why people can’t use their devices whatever the way they want, greedy corps.
I work for a telecom.
99% of the time this was because the cost of the phone is built into your plan. There was a serious risk (and still is) of fraud whereby the phone is fraudulently ordered to an address, the phone physically swiped, the customer never pays, and the telecom can’t recover the phone or its costs. More basically, it used to be pretty hard to get money from customers who just stopped paying. You could get a €2000 euro phone for €500, pay that up front, and walk to the local guy with a serial cable who unlocked your phone for €20.
Theres a lot more protections, technological and legal, that have slowed this now, but the profit is still high enough that jumping through hoops like embedding an ally in the contact centre or intercepting couriers is still worth it. Most of our phones are no longer locked to carrier as we just have better ways of dealing with it now, and all we were doing was feeding 20 euro to the guy who also sells vapes and buys gold.
Sounds pretty based to do that to a carrier ngl
I’m sorry the carriers you deal with are so shit but until mobile data transfer becomes a government utility (and let me tell you, there’s a reason telecoms are scrambling to diversify) they do have to make a profit. In most markets the margins are razor thin and new radio technologies (4G, 5G, 6G) are costing more and returning less.
So when poorly regulated markets let them merge into monopolies, or they cut costs by reducing human customer services, “based, I stole a phone from a shitty company” should hopefully be also followed up by you supporting legislation to make mobile data a government utility.
For reference I work in an EU telecom and our industry is heavily regulated. If software companies or supermarkets were hammered for what they do with the data we “just” transfer, they’d be a lot cleaner too.
The reason they’re cheaper is because the carrier is expecting to keep you locked in their network.
Not worth it IMO. Similar to cheaper phones with loads of preinstalled crap, you’re not getting a discount, you’re signing a deal to be farmed.
I don’t buy very expensive phones, but I try to find ones that are mostly free of crap (not easy), and I’m ready to pay a bit extra for that.
I want to feel the same but from a purely financial standpoint it makes sense.
Don’t want a locked down phone? Buy directly from the manufacturer.
