Thanks republicans, very pro consumer, very cool.
Who didn’t need this in their life? I’m so glad the CFPB has also been disemboweled.
It isn’t a gun or a fetus so they don’t care.
You just made me think of this, has anyone slapped a cell modem onto a gun yet? That sounds like something that would happen here
That may lead to FaaS, though, Firearms as a Subscription.
I saw ‘FaaS’ and immediately thought Freedom as a Service, which is exactly the tagline such a service would have
Not a bad idea
Anything as a Subscription is a bad idea, honestly.
So, when you are, as the classic text says, bayonet-charging the last terrified rapscallion, you suddenly find yourself without a bayonet and with said rapscallion really motivated to take as much moral repayment from your suffering as they can.
They’ll be so happy to tell you how it’s actually your fault for voting for democrats and you better believe them OR ELSE.
(Still applies if you didn’t vote for democrats or even if you aren’t American)
If you’re not feeling the freedom and amazing positive effects yet, it’s because it’s coming. Juuust over the next hill. Alllways over the next hill.
They should be banned from having any unlocking restrictions after they were found to have violated the initial FCC mandates placed on them. Absolutely disgraceful. No accountability.
Imagine buying a PC and you can only use it with Comcast or att internet for the first year, manufactured trash
Trust me, pc manufacturers and Comcast are imagining this.
Not sure why anyone is still using Verizon.
US Mobile has access to their networks and it’s cheaper. Same service. Been with USM for nearly 2 years now. My parents and siblings all switched over too. Moved our numbers over with zero issues.
Verizon not in your area? Cool, USM also has access to T-Mobile and ATT.
People need to learn to shop around, especially in the current economy we’re in.
There’s a VERY important distinction here.
The ‘unlock’ that they are talking about here is to unlock your phone’s SIM to be able to be used with another carrier’s service.
This does not mean that the bootloader is unlocked and you will not be able to replace the OS. You will still be stuck with Verizon’s spyware-laden release of Android even when you move to a new carrier.
So, buy your devices directly from the manufacturer and make sure that the phone supports the ability to unlock (and re-lock!) the bootloader. If you need a recommendation, get a current generation Pixel and install GrapheneOS or if you won’t give up Google Play and dependent apps, LineageOS.
Yes, this is great advice. I’ve looked into GrapheneOS, and I’ve been wondering if I could use Google play apps at all on it? Is there a way to spoof that service?
Yes, it has a sandboxed Google Play service and the Play Store app that you can enable which let’s you access apps with hard Google dependencies.
If you want to use it as a regular Android phone it works for everything that doesn’t require Google’s hardware attestation (so, no using your phone for NFC credit card payments mostly). This limitation also affects LineageOS.
Awesome! Thank you for this! 🤝
You’re welcome.
The installation is easy too. GrapheneOS has a WebUSB installation process that is basically plugging your unlocked phone into USB, allowing GrapheneOS WebUSB access, and pressing go. It takes maybe 10 minutes. (I went into it expecting manual jailbreak-level difficulty and was very surprised at how easy it was)
Wow, that’s actually crazy! I can’t wait to buy a Pixel 10 Pro Fold and do it. :D
ThAnK gOd FoR cApItAlIsM /s
There’s options though for those that don’t want a carrier locked device.
Last time I bought an unlocked phone a bunch of stuff like Wi-Fi calling didn’t work.
Usually wifi calling doesn’t work out of the box but if you google you can find the solution in no time
I wish it were that easy. Even trying to find a solution for At&t now doesn’t yield any real answers. Maybe it works differently now as this was a few years ago.
I hear ya but honestly you wouldn’t have the service let alone the devices without it.
Workers built the phone and the infrastructure not capitalism.
And don’t forget the tech funded by the tax payers through universities! The cell phone tech was made in spite of capitalism.
The shitty modern smart phone is the result of capitalism.
This is a big deal because this will hit low end customers the hardest. People who shop at Dollar General for their phones.
I remember when relatively speedy device unlocks were mandated. And before then, contracts would basically include the price of the phone in them. Now we have to pay extra for the phone, and it’s still not ours. Very cool.
Phones used to be “free” but your bill was higher to cover it. Your bill stayed the same whether you took the “free” phone or not. Now your bill is lower, but buying a phone through the carrier brings it back up. That’s been my experience at least.
The part that gets me is that the unlock is not automatic. I don’t like the fact that it is now for a year but now also Verizon has the upper hand to just refuse the unlock to anyone they don’t like.
This is stupid. Part of the agreement to allow them to buy a certain spectrum was that they unlocked sims after 60 days.
What’s the point of all this if rules don’t matter?
For a long time, you couldn’t really buy an unlocked phone straight from the manufacturer in the US. The closest thing was importing one is with the correct network bands (GSM), but that also kind of went away when VoLTE became a requirement.
Relatively recently, some manufacturers started offering unlocked devices sold straight from them, but it wasn’t until Apple started doing it with the iPhone that it became a mass-appeal/well known thing.
So overall it’s because:
- That’s just how things were for a long time
- Carriers offer deals on their locked devices
- 2-year carrier contracts were a thing until the mid 2010s or so
- People are just used to their carrier being a one-stop-shop
Nowadays more people are aware about buying an unlocked phone instead of a carrier firmware/carrier locked device. But in the US I’d say most people only know about iPhones being offered unlocked.
I jumped in the hot tub with my phone in my pocket last summer and needed a phone and couldn’t really wait for one to ship from a random eBay or swappa seller so I had to go to Best Buy.
They had nothing carrier unlocked that was newer than the 128GB iPhone 15 for $800, refurbished. All else they had was a couple old pixels and galaxies and they weren’t much cheaper.
Policies like impact the poor folks who can’t afford the cash for phones that are unlocked and are stuck paying high monthly service rates.
Not from us and cannot understand why smartphone needs to be bundled with network operators. Those are 2 separate entities and there is no need for one to be dependent on another. You buy a phone you buy a sim.
If you were already planning on using a specific carrier, buying a locked phone is cheaper.
Like for a extremely frugal example:
A Samsung Galaxy A15 is $200, a locked version can be as low as $60. Still the same 5 year security updates (presumably, unless the carrier fucks with it).
But if you were gonna use X carrier from the start, then then it doesn’t cost you extra. You can still use that cheap plan same as if you BYOD. And it used to unlock in 60 days, so before this policy took effect, you could just switch carriers after 2 months.
A lot of the time it ends up cheaper to shop a separate plan and buy an unlocked device outright.
The major carrier data plans are severely overpriced.
Use swappa.com or some other way to buy unlocked phones and never have to deal with Verizon’s BS again. You can have the service with no phone issues.
So if I bought one before that date I am not held to this?
