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Verizon carriers start switching to 365-day device unlock policy, up from 60 days (9to5google.com)
submitted 9 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 119 points 9 months ago (34 children)

As a reminder to everyone:

If you can afford it, you can 100% just... Buy a phone online and use it with your carrier. Make sure it's carrier unlocked, but yeah. All but one of my phones (bought in an emergency) was bought this way, and I've been through... 5 or 6? carriers and never had an issue

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  • [–] 33 points 9 months ago* (10 children)

    Assuming they let you BYOD. I know T-Mobile does because that's how I do it.

    I get used Pixels off eBay for like $200. Carrier unlocked ones like $50 more. But I think only Verizon is the problematic carrier for those.

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  • [–] 20 points 9 months ago* (5 children)

    I have been doing this on Verizon for several years now without a problem.. I don't even tell Verizon I just buy the unlocked phone and switch SIM cards It works perfectly fine

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  • [+] 23 points 9 months ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (5 children)
    [deleted]
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  • [–] 5 points 9 months ago

    I haven't heard of a carrier that doesn't, at least personally. Then again, I've mostly used smaller carriers. Republic Wireless, FreedomPop, Mint, etc. I did use TMo for a while on a prepaid plan up until I got tired of the texting not working half the time

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    I bought a refurbished Pixel 6 Pro, carrier unlocked, for around $250. I also switched to an MVNO called Tello, and couldn't be happier. If I should need to switch carriers, it's going to be to another MVNO. I'm done with the major carriers.

    https://tello.com

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  • [–] 5 points 9 months ago

    Another good MVNO, for privacy, is Phreeli. Louis Rossmann (on YT) created a MVNO which collects no data from you, you can even pay cash-by-mail anonymously and with crypto.

    Pretty straight forward value proposition: You pay and they provide phone services, don't sell your data and design their systems around not collecting your data in the first place or, if collected (like payment information) is used for the transactions and deleted.

    The only information you provide is a zip code (optional, but ties the phone into your area's 911 system if you're into that kind of thing)

    I am not an ad bot(OR AM I?)

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  • [–] 9 points 9 months ago (3 children)

    Not with AT&T. Bought a Pixel 9 Pro Fold on a huge sale from Google themselves, but because AT&T doesn't sell it, they couldn't provision it correctly on their network. Went through all the troubleshooting, they sent me a new SIM even. Finally I did my own research online, found a reddit post where someone talked to an employee on some internal AT&T team that said they probably won't ever support it properly since they don't sell it.

    So that was frustrating.

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  • [–] 9 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    Oh that's gross as shit. Seems they have a general BYOD plan, but I guess that only applies if they have that model of phone.

    Didn't even realize that could be an issue, given I've used a PinePhone of all things on my carrier and it worked as fine as one could expect mobile Linux to work

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  • [–] 4 points 9 months ago

    Anything can be an issue if work hard enough.

    This is, conveniently, a decision that discourages their customers from buying hardware from anywhere but themselves an anti-competitive practice which carries little risk of lawsuit, or fine.

    It's certainly not a technical problem. We all, mostly, use the same cellular network and other carriers have no trouble supporting devices purchased directly from the vendor.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago

    Yeah, their BYOD plan works great if they sell the phone you're using. My Pixel 7 I got from the Google Store worked just fine with AT&T for two years before I upgraded. I just didn't even consider whether they sold the device or not to be important to the functionality of the phone.

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  • [–] 8 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    I'm going to suggest swappa.com for buying unlocked phones a couple generations back at a cheap price. I've been using an s20 I think I picked up for like 150 bucks the last couple years without a problem.. And I just picked up a Pixel 7 to put graphene on so I can you know not have Google up my ass all the time.

    It's all significantly cheaper and all you have to do is put your SIM card in the new phone as long as it's unlocked you're good.

    I'm more than willing to try any alternatives to swapa it's just the only company that I've used thus far outside of an eBay situation.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago

    I really like swappa for the ability to return the phone to the seller for refund.

    In theory eBay also allows this, but since it's a core feature of the swappa marketplace that it gives me comfort that the phone is listed in good faith and they haven't misrepresented the phone.

    I suggest it to anyone I know looking for a phone

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  • [–] 7 points 9 months ago

    Ebay is full of used flagships that cost very little. With enshitification, many of the older flagships are better than what you could get by buying new for the same price.

    Also, fuck contracts. I've been using prepaid plans for ages.

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  • [–] 9 points 9 months ago (6 children)

    Make sure it’s carrier unlocked, but yeah.

    I'm all for buying my own phones and not getting one bundled with service. However, many times getting a carrier unlocked phone carries a price premium. As long as you're fine sticking with your current carrier, they can even be carrier locked and work just fine. I agree though, ownership of your phone outside of your carrier's billing is the right way to go.

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  • [–] 31 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    Well, I wouldn't call it's premium. Unlocked is closer to MSRP, whereas carrier locked is being subsidized by the carrier and whatever requirements they have in place. You'll usually end up paying more in the long run then if you went with unlocked and a MVNO.

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  • [–] 6 points 9 months ago

    You’ll usually end up paying more in the long run then if you went with unlocked and a MVNO.

    You're missing a component: you can buy used phones and go with an MVNO and skip the contract subsidy requirement for savings

    I purchased a used carrier locked flagship phone for $250 when they were still selling for $1100 as new carrier-unlocked, then put it on my MVNO which is a subsidiary of the primary carrier (so the carrier lock doesn't matter).

    You can't get those cost savings with a new contract phone nor a new carrier unlocked phone.

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  • [–] 7 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    However, many times getting a carrier unlocked phone carries a price premium.

    That's a good point. I've started advocating for buying phones lightly used (1-2 generations behind). Until just a couple of months ago, I was rocking a phone from 2019 with no issues. When I upgraded recently, I bought a Pixel 9 from a reseller selling one with an open box and a slight scuff on the bezel (that gets covered by a case anyway). Now I have an almost new phone that works like a dream for almost 75% of what I would get buying it directly from Google.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago

    Huh, I'd never actually noticed they were higher price. Most of the time I'm buying the phone from the manufacturer's website, and I at least didn't see carrier locked phones on Motorola's website when I got my last phone. Does make sense, though, given carriers will hope to subsidize some of the cost of the phone through the plan itself

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago (4 children)

    If you can afford it

    It's cheaper, no? You just go on ebay or any other used marketplace.

    I know it's a slightly higher initial cost (depending on the phone), but phones last years, you'll be saving way more over those years.

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  • [–] 10 points 9 months ago*

    This is the whole being poor keeps you poor thing.

    You can't afford $200-300 outright, but you can afford the monthly plan that costs $20 more but ends up costing $490 instead of $250 .

    You can't afford the $300 winter boots, so you buy the $100 ones that fall apart in 2 seasons instead of lasting a decade.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    Kinda depends. If you buy the phone outright it's usually pretty similar in price, but most people finance, and then it is cheaper to buy separately because interest hits like a truck :D

    I know a lot of people who can't necessarily afford $200 minimum to drop on a phone, though, and that's for one that really starts to struggle after 2 years to do anything other than the most basic call/text functionality

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    My S20 is doing fine...and I almost exclusively buy a phone a couple years old for 150/200 total. I haven't seen any changes in new phones that make upgrading worth it and it's much easier to replace an older phone you break than a brand new phone you break.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago

    I've mostly used new budget phones, personally. My current phone is the most expensive one I've owned, and it was $400 xD I probably should do used more, but phones do usually last me a while, and I normally use a wallet case so they're fairly well protected against drops

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  • [–] 0 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    Also, if you don't care about phone calls, you can skip the carrier altogether and just use wifi.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    And if you do care you can use Google voice (I know, I know, but not aware of a better alternative?) without a carrier.

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