AT&T tries to defend why it shouldn't let you unlock your phone sooner

Like when you buy the thing sooner? Cuz we would remove all the bloatware they add. They used to do that to computers and we just stopped buying those shit things and building our own.

11

Shit man. I used to work at a Circuit City at the height of bloated shitty Celeron PCs.

We would be forced to sell a "system optimization" on each PC we sold. It was just a script that uninstalled a few of the bloatware items and tweaked the animation speed to make the customer think we did something incredible.

I fucking hated that job!

8
- Reads like a scam. Maybe our time is not as full of scams as compared to the past.
  
  After all, memories get distorted. As kids and teens we'd have parents look out for us and give good advice, helping us avoid some of the worse parts.
  
  1
This is about network unlocking and not bootloader unlocking

3
- Ah okay. I thought I was dead and went to heaven accidentally. I guess I'm back here. I'll just place my nuts on the anvil so my new phone can be safely smashed over them. Or like how can I buy a phone that is actually truly mine and not the phone company's?
  
  1

Just make carrier locking illegal and have customers pay the actual price, now it's just hidden costs to the consumer.

70

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.

9
- 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.
  
  8
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.

0
- Then carrier locking should just be plain illegal.
  
  1

I accidentally broke my Sony after drowning it a little too hard. I remember going into a AT&T store at a mall in the us and having this literal conversation.

"Do you have the Pixel 7 Pro?"

"Yes! We do."

"Does it come carrier unlocked?"

"No..."

"Thanks for your time"

45

I usually just buy my phone directly from a big box store never from a carrier

32
- Same, and phones are good enough now that I feel perfectly comfortable buying a device that is two generations behind. I recently saved nearly $1300 by doing this ($1800 when it was new; I paid $550), and the phone feels just as fast and responsive as a brand new flagship.
  
  6
- I get all mine on eBay. There are some big-time sellers who are pros at reselling old phones and give an honest A-D rating. Same goes for PCs. Buy from the pros if you're wary of the average Joe.
  
  5
- I ended up just ordering one from a friend's amazon account.
  
  3

Meanwhile Australia is going to fore carriers to disconnect customers with devices that are not guaranteed to support emergency calling over volte. As there are still unsolved problems with detecting that, the providers fall back to only allowing devices they provided themselves.

6

god I hate how the government acts like smartphones need to call. smartphones are able to be used as computers and should be treated as such.

3
- Yeah. I'm done with stupid phone number calling. Anybody can fake a phone number. It's stupid as stupid can be. It's time to stop using a phone number and personalize the phone a bit. Like 2FA for calls. If you don't have it, send me a post card thru the USPS and I'll let you have my 2FA access code. Meet me at the mall and I can get you my 2FA. And if I get to meet a bad guy, I'll just change the 2FA for that one person.
  
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I don’t play this game. I buy my own unlocked phone and find prepaid cell service at a fraction of the cost.

164

Why is prepaid service cheaper? I never understood why plans cost more. You would thing it would be the opposite.

3
- Some reasons:
  
  prioritized traffic - if towers are congested, carrier customers get priority over prepaid customers
  
  name brand recognition - most have heard of Verizon, T-Mobile, or AT&T, few have heard of Tell, Ting, or RedPocket
  
  financing - you can get "free" upgrades from bigger carriers, whereas I pay cash w/ my prepaid service
  
  features - most big carriers support roaming (sometimes international roaming), whereas those tend to be ala carte w/ prepaid
  
  In short, you get a bit more hassle w/ prepaid, but you get a lot of savings. I pay <$10/month for my service (1GB data, unlimited text, 300 minutes call), and I could get unlimited everything for $25-30 (depending on prepaid carrier). I bought my phone for <$400, whereas cost is less of a concern for big carriers since they often offer financing issues. I hate monthly payments, so I prefer to buy devices in cash and keep my monthly service payments low.
  
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- Money up front vs people just not paying the bill at the end of the month.
  
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- Because prepaid customers get lower priority on the tower. If I'm in even a moderately crowded area, my connection speeds go to shit and nothing loads.
  
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This is the way

25
- It won't last, oligopolies are buying out mvnos to consolidate further. Maybe anti trust fear will halt them but doubtful.
  
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Is it not normal that you can use any phone with any abonnement?

6
- Yes, but some carriers lock the phones they sell so they only work with their subscriptions.
  
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One of the three carriers in Canada is about to do away with prepaid entirely in December. That said, I have a pretty affordable monthly plan and I buy my phones outright.

9

Basically, AT&T argues against it saying it’ll force them to innovate and be competitive with other services.

Won’t anyone think of the poor telecom shareholders??

88

All I see with that statement is, "Please Federal Government, hit me with your breakup hammer."

19
- hit me with your breakup hammer...
  
  hard
  
  4

https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/contact/phone/q19.htm

Canada:

First, locked phones are a thing of the past. Effective December 1, 2017, service providers will have to offer unlocked devices to their customers.

What are the benefits of having an unlocked device?

An unlocked device can be used on other networks, which means that you will be able to switch providers and keep the same phone. That means more flexibility for you, the consumer.

80

I want to reiterate this. Even second hand phones. Find the carrier and call them. They legally have to oblige.

48
- I remember trying to do this when this first became law. Bell told me no anyways.
  
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Out of curiosity, I would imagine that if someone goes the carrier-financing route, they'd still be on the hook for the cost of the phone even if they jumped to a different carrier? I don't want to sound like I'm in support of at&t, but it doesn't seem terribly unreasonable to keep a customer in place while they still have a balance on the hardware, or is there something else I'm missing?

18

You're right. You still have to pay the remaining balance of the phone when you cancel early.

1
Yeah. I always saw it as a trade-off. "Here's a cheaper or zero interest loan for a phone. You get this in exchange for paying us a cell phone bill for the next year or two."

What pusses me off is that none of the big three give any discount if you have your own phone. If the guy next to me gets $600 off his cell phone purchase and pays $80/month, how come I still pay $80/month with my own device?

15
- Wow, I pay £10 a month for unlimited calls/text and 45GB data. Not even on contract, it's a monthly rolling bill, I can cancel at any time. The reason for this, there's pretty good competition between carriers/NVMOs in the UK at the moment, driving prices down.
  
  8
- Not sure what carrier you're on, but I pay $35/mo per line with Verizon and have 2 SIM cards for my phone. Granted we have a family plan, and my wife pays $60/mo cause she wants her latest iPhone, but it usually works out cheaper to buy a phone online outright a year or two after release and then I'm not paying the recurring finance charges.
  
  1
I agree with what you're saying. They got the phone from Carrier A with the expectation the phone plan went with it. Once the phone is paid off, they can take the phone to Carrier B. Since they phone is basically bought on an interest free loan, the interest is recouped by the plan, and the collateral for not paying is a loss of the phone plan and use of the phone. To leave the plan, payoff the phone.

That does require that, the moment the phone is paid off, it should be automatically unlocked. There shouldn't have to be a request or additional waiting. And the customer should be notified that it's unlocked along with an explanation that they can now use the phone with any other provider.

4
- Automatic unlocking sounds like a pipe dream given the American business landscape, but there shouldn't be any barriers to unlocking, even if the customer has to request it. People are likely stuck in the mindset of yesteryear where phones weren't transferrable between carriers (especially with band compatibility of GSM vs CDMA), and I'd wager that many people don't even realize it's possible these days. I can't say I blame carriers for wanting to maintain the illusion, and I don't necessarily think they should be forced to advertise it, but the option should be plain and simple for those who want to exercise the right.
  
  5
- They automatically unlock it once it’s paid off. They have a disclaimer that it needs to stay on the network for 60 days after it’s paid off, but I think that’s a CYA because mine was unlocked within a day of the last payment.
  
  I just checked and I have 6 unlocked phones on my account and never requested any of them.
  
  2
I’m not from the US, but where I live it’s either (or a combination of):

Your contract runs for two years. You can cancel it before, but still have to pay for the first two years. Often prices depend on which category of phone you want (say 20€/month for the service, 25€ with a “smart” phone, 30€ with a “premium” phone, 35€ with a “power” phone,…)

You have two separate contracts, one for your phone, one for the mobile service. In this case you might pay for your phone 24 months, or 36, or whatever you agreed on and you can cancel the mobile service independently (assuming it’s not also locked to 2 years)

Some carriers even allow you to only get a phone without a contract for the mobile service.

If you finance a phone with your carrier, they’re legally bound to tell you what you pay for your phone monthly and how much for the service - there are many ways around that, unfortunately…

In any case, you get an unlocked phone.
2

It'll lead to higher prices meaning they'll charge more lol

11