482
AT&T tries to defend why it shouldn't let you unlock your phone sooner
(www.androidauthority.com)
this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2024
482 points (99.0% liked)
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Just make carrier locking illegal and have customers pay the actual price, now it's just hidden costs to the consumer.
It isn't been a hidden cost for a while. Phone companies sell the phones at full price, but consumers want the 2 year 0% APR financing.
If consumers bought the phones from a third party, there'd be absolutely no reason to lock the phone to a carrier. But when carriers also provide the financing, there's an incentive to keep them on the service until the bill is paid. Screw that.
If I could drop $1000+ for the device all at once, I already would be getting them carrier unbranded.
Then don't buy a $1k device, and instead buy something you can afford?
Otherwise, there are tons of buy now, pay later services, so you could just use any of those.
Not go into debt to upgrade something that actually in most cases doesn't need upgrading. What a amazing thought.
Yup. I upgraded my phone because it ran out of software updates (had for >3 years). My new phone cost <$400 and has >5 years of software support, if the hardware lasts that long. A $1k device is not necessary and is a luxury item, and you shouldn't go into debt for luxuries...
Exactly. I started buying my phones at full price unlocked in 2016 when I switched to a mobile virtual network operator and I've never gone back to $1,000 phones because losing $1,000 from your Monero wallet hurts bad.
Where are you buying phones w/ Monero?
https://xmrbazaar.com/user/SimplifiedPrivacy
Or put "grapheneos" In the search box on the main page
Ah, okay. I just bought a phone with fiat and loaded it w/ GrapheneOS myself like a pleb.
I wouldnt recommend an already setup grapheneos device in the first place. How would you trust that?
I've been doing the same. It makes traveling easier too. It costs way less to get a local sim for an unlocked phone you own than to pay the carrier to allow you to use a locked phone overseas.
At home, MVNOs, for me, were basically what the rest of the world had. The big carriers kept pushing phones, the MVNOs were simpler, quicker, and less scammy. Eventually I found a non-MVNO T-Mobile prepaid plan that gave me unlimited SMS, 100min. Talk, and 5-6GB data (which they deceptively call unlimited 👎, but was more than enough for me)
The site run by the greedy little pigboy used to have a "nocontract" community for discussing the best plans, they had a big google sheet and lots of research, but it seems someone infiltrated it because they no longer list the best deals.
Yep, me personally, I am on the T-Mobile Connect 5GB plan, which gives me unlimited talk and text with 5GB of data and then no more. But that's perfectly fine by me since the vast majority of the time I have access to Wi-Fi extremely easily.
I haven't heard of this. Is this plan available still? I'm on TMobile, but like my previous comment I have limited minutes. This works great as an excuse not to talk to people, but I have had to add minutes when I have to deal with someone, for example an insurance company, on a repeating basis. I pay $30 a month which is ridiculously good compared to the plans they advertise. I didn't think the 100 min limit would be an issue, but it occasionally is. If I could carry over my unused minutes I would be 100% okay.
https://prepaid.t-mobile.com/connect
Until you realize that things like wifi calling have to be an at&t phone. Unless they've changed this in the last few years.
What do you mean? Quick Google shows that T-Mobile allowed wireless calling back in 2007.
I didn't mention T-Mobile
But who is going to provide the financing otherwise?
PayPal credit is an option. No interest if you pay it off in 6 months.
There are tons of buy now, pay later services, and they make money through revenue sharing w/ the retailer, as well as when people fail to pay back the loan on time.
But ideally, this would just put downward pressure on phone prices as people look to buy phones w/ cash instead of going into debt.
Just like Smart TV's.
Honestly any moderately expensive item can be purchased through installments. Go to any electronics store and they'll have offers like that, and they use different services to provide that financing.
It's a non-issue, carriers don't need to be a party to that at all. I can literally go to BestBuy or Apple and get 0% financing on a new phone and take it to any carrier I want.
You know what you're talking about. It's nice to see that.
But if carriers didn't have phones for sale everyone would be mad about it. They might have even been mad in the beginning, so the carriers started selling phones too.
You're going off of phone contracts that haven't been around for a decade. The cost of the phone up front, and has been for a long time.
Then carrier locking should just be plain illegal.
They lock it so you'll pay for the phone. That's the only reason.
Should requiring people to pay for things be illegal?
Frankly you're being ignorant, and expect to somehow get a thousand dollar device for free. That's not how the world works.
Wha? The guy I responded to said the customers now pay full price up front. If a device is bought it should be unlocked.
Additionally giving away a phone for a determined time contract means that the company is technically giving you a loan and it should be on your credit record, require the company to do a proper credit check and be allowed to give out loans.
Bottom line, it's predatory and should not be allowed. Noone is advocating giving 1000 dollar phones for free.. it was a strawman you stuck me with.. but I don't want it.
No. I never said that. I said the cost of the phone is upfront. There are no 2 year contracts anymore, and haven't been for at least a decade. You see the full price of the phone, and decide how much a month you want to spend to pay it off.
I agree with you. And that's how it works. The question is how long after paying off the phone should it be locked.
Again, they haven't offered contracts like that in ten years. But yes you do need to pass a credit check to have a phone financed.
What exactly should not be allowed?
OK so you buy the phone on a payment plan.. and credit check. Then once it's paid off it should be unlocked.
Correct, you've got it. That's how it's worked for ten+ years.
Here in the Netherlands they don't allow carrier locking and still sell on these installment plans.
They are 2 separate services (telecom & financing) and thus cannot be linked at sale. That's not an issue.. why would it be different in the US?
In the Netherlands you purchase a new phone and a fixed monthly subscription for calls, texts, and data. You choose to pay for the phone itself upfront, or with installments each month, along with your monthly subscription cost.
That's the same thing. I think you don't know what you're talking about, friend.
Back to the original point.. Phones are not provider locked. That's not allowed. It's a predatory practice.
You're talking about sim only plans. The US also has that.
The part they are saying is different is that the phones are unlocked immediately. They don't ever lock.
You can continue paying at&t for the phone after moving to a different carrier.
How do you think people will steal phones like this?
When did that become possible?
Last I knew is when you cancel your account (which is what moving to another carrier is) they billed you for the remaining balance of the phone.
No I mean thats what's proposed. I'm saying leaving the companies service has nothing to do with a loan they gave you. They are separate things. Its possible they would stop with no interest but I believe they can still make money without interest in some cases.
Ah gotcha. Yeah that'd be cool. I hope it works out. More options is always better.
Your probably right about the interest, or else why would they agree to it.