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Verizon is Locking Its Phones Down To Combat Theft (cnet.com)
Verizon is taking an extra step to protect its phones. CNET: The nation's largest wireless carrier said Monday that it would begin locking the phones it sells to consumers, which will prevent them from using a SIM card from another carrier. Initially, the phones will be unlocked as soon as a customer signs up and activates the service. But later in the spring, the company will begin the practice of keeping the phone locked for a period of time after the purchase -- in line with the rest of the industry. Verizon said it is doing this to deter criminals from stealing phones, often on route to retail stores or from the stores themselves.
This isn't about "protecting consumers". It's about killing off the secondary phone market. After you upgrade, you're stuck with a brick you can't sell. All those people who buy used phones will be forced to purchase new - or rooted ones.
I find this highly unlikely. They're locking in their customers under the guise of deterring theft.
If the "period of time after the purchase" is 3 to 12 months, as it is with T-Mobile, it won't affect someone who upgrades and sells on his old handset after one or two years.
This is such bs. It's already a struggle to enable your phone to work with international carriers abroad. It is so extremely cost inefficient to try and pay for roaming data. How about trying to change that policy first.
Phone locking is about your $ecurity.
It was always about $ecurity, not profits.
Phones can be unlocked for a nominal fee , to protect your $ecurity.
Good to know, as a verizon customer who was toying with replacing my 8 year old phone with a new one, I guess I will look for another provider also.
I just bought a new phone and had to order a Canadian model so that not only would it be carrier-unlocked, but also bootloader unlocked. Since I still have that crazy idea that when I buy a phone, that I own the phone and the carrier shouldn't be able to dictate what I can and can't install on it, copy off from it for backups to keep my data safe, etc.Or dictate when I need to buy a new phone because they've arbitrarily decided to stop providing OS updates for it, leaving me unsafe and left behind.
Yes it's 1 (soon, 2) models "behind" from the latest and greatest but it's 2 models NEWER than my current phone, because I'm not a sucker who falls for marketing pressure trying to convince me I need a new phone every year when I clearly do not.
If computer manufacturers pulled the same shit on computers, people would've been up in arms. Though we're watching Apple and now Microsoft try and take advantage of how users are being fucked and desensitized by consumer-hostile cell carrier practices, and infect PCs with the same anti-consumer practices inch by inch. Don't you dare tell me what OS I can and can't run on the hardware I bought, or what apps I can or can't use, or what data of MINE I'm allowed to copy and back up.
(cue all the trolls who jump in and claim that rooting is no longer necessary and serves no purpose. Don't bother, you're wrong.)
Since when is this a new thing? 10 years ago phones bought from Verizon came locked and you had to ask them pretty please to unlock them.
If the "industry" is "Verizon Wireless" then yes, locked phones are the norm.
The rest of the wireless service providers around the world and in the US provide unlocked phones
and are required to unlock a phone once a service contract is complete.
Verizon has ZERO interest in preventing phone theft. They could care less. This is just a protectionist move to lock in customers.
E
Verizon is taking an extra step to protect its phones.
A) They are not Verizon's phones. They are phones that Verizon customers own. Verizon owns the network not the phones.
B) They aren't protecting anything except their bottom line.
I recently upraded an iPhone, but I did it at an Apple Store instead of through VZW.
The Apple sales guy asked me if I wanted an unlocked SIM.
I'm guessing that third party vendors for Android phones would do the same.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Another reason to buy standard, uncrippled, unlocked phones separately from any airtime contract.
Buy them on credit if you must. My airtime provider doesn't care much as to what handset I have, so long as my SIM will fit, and it will work on the frequency ranges and technical standards that their network uses.
Insurance against a phone going missing in transit from the seller to the customer should not inconvenience the customer in any way, other than possibly acknowledging safe receipt of goods. If Verizon is worried about this, they should offer free unlocking immediately after their customer acknowledges safe receipt.
There was a nice wagon in the big Monday carnival parade showing the US-Russian relation.
http://www.tageblatt.lu/wp-con...
"Oh so unfair, this is all about making profit!!!!"
No shit sherlocktards. DOn't like it, buy from a different vendor. Me, I'll be enjoying the lower prices, superior service and support of Verizon.
I think the locking part is more for IMEI blacklisting. The network has the ability to block known stolen phones via an IMEI blacklisting. But each carrier has their own blacklist (there is some sharing - but not international AFAIK). So at the moment - a thief can just take the phone to another network (especially out of country), and just use it.
Having the phone locked to the network for the first few months, means if a thief gets their hands prior to activation, then it's a brick.
If the sim lock is auto removed after 3-6 months then I see this as a GOOD change overall, as the incentive to steal phones is reduced.
it's not "on route" it's "en route". "on route" means nothing auf Anglish.
Are phones purchased prior to this announcement going to be "upgraded" with this security feature ?
If it's "in line with the rest of the industry", it'll be within a year. Another U.S. carrier unlocks after 90 days on a postpaid plan or one year on a prepaid plan (source).
Verizon is locking up phones and applying 200% markup to combat pedophilia. Are you against this? If so, why do you hate children?
Here in Canada, it is now illegal to carrier-lock phones. And carriers are obligated by law to unlock phones that were locked before the law passed, for free.
Fuck monopolistic corporate fascists.
I bought a Verizon prepaid phone last year and it had a sticker that said it was locked to Verizon for a year "to justify the low subsidized cost of the phone" or something like that. Is this expanding from prepaid phones to all of their phones, or was this already true for all of their phones?
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
They are not Verizon's phones. They are phones that Verizon customers own.
Before the customer buys a phone, it is Verizon's phone.
After the customer buys a phone, it is a phone that a Verizon customer owns.
Locking a phone while it still belongs to Verizon helps to deter thieves from stealing a phone before a customer has a chance to buy it. This way Verizon can put the savings on its theft insurance policy into improving its network.
There must be no thieves in Belgium as it is forbidden, by law, to block phones. I change operator about every 1 to 2 years. I buy phones in the mean time when it pleases me.
I have the same cell phonenumber since 10 to 15 years. Changing operator is as easy as going into the store, signing up for a new pre-paid card and put it in. A few hours later I get the SMS that the transfer has been done. They even ask how much there is on the old provider, as you will lose that amount. If it is a lot, they advice to do it later, when it is less and not to loose the amount on the competitors sim. Not that much with a prepaid, but if you have a contract and end it too soon, you might pay a LOT.
And all this with unloocked phones.
There are contracts where it is in comination with a phone, but even then I could take the phone and use that with another provider, while I use an old phone with the new contract. So say I want to use an Android and my SO wants to use an iPhone. I can sign up for an iPhone contract, use it with the android and use the Android contract (with the same or a different provider) with the iPhone.
Oh, and no roaming costs in Europe. I hope they are working about no extra costs for calling international inside Europe. There are countries that have cheaper contracts.
And all that because there are not any thieves in Belgium. Well, that must be it, otherwise Verizon would be lying and how can a company be lying to their customers. That would be bad for business, right? RIGHT?
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Verizon promised, when they purchase the 700Mhz spectrum in 2007, not to do this for any device which uses the 700Mhz spectrum.
ALL their phones use this spectrum.
But it's going to take a class action lawsuit to get them to agree to their own rules, because there is no way Ajit is going to take them to task for violating their agreement.
"I will trust Google to 'do no evil' until the founders no longer run it." Hello Alphabet.
Here in Canada as of last November you cannot sell any phone locked...its the law.
Don't worry, Verizon has an "inside man" at the FCC to make sure there will be no consequences to violating the agreement. So much for "draining the swamp".
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
News at 11.
When a would-be thief sees the giant flashing "Powered by Verizon" sign floating over my phone, they'll know not to steal from me and to look for a giant "Brought to you by AT&T" banner. Thieves put a lot of thought into deciding which phone to steal.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Everyone reads the headline, and maybe part of TFS, and proceeds to jump to the worst possible conclusion.
From TFA: For consumers, there's little immediate impact because the phone gets unlocked immediately through a software update.
Also from TFA: Even after the change, Verizon will continue to unlock the phone [upon customer request] regardless of whether it's paid off or not. The company will also still accept unlocked phones from other carriers.
But don't let any of that get in the way of your impotent ramps, guys. You can always switch to that other provider that doesn't lock phones to their service. Let's see, who is that, again? From TFA one more time: AT&T requires you to pay off your phone and be active on your service for at least 60 days. Even then, there's a 14-day wait after you make your request. Sprint also requires that you have paid off your phone and wait 50 days, although the phone is automatically unlocked. T-Mobile has the same paid device requirement and a 40-day wait period, but will offer to temporarily unlock the device sooner for travel.
If you bought a verizon phone because it was unlocked by default, that advantage disappeared.
All the carriers do is implement the minimum timed unlocking capabilities mandated by the fcc.
Before this rule, phones were locked forever. I assume if the FCC removed the requirement, we would again have heaps more useless locked phones.
https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/cell-phone-unlocking-faqs
It's now illegal to sell a locked cellphone. Funny how as Canada moves one way the US seems to be moving the other.
If they cared about theft they would just maintain an IMEI database of stolen phones and refuse to activate stolen phones. No, they want to bypass the first-sale doctrine and prevent the secondary sale of "their" phones.
I think Verizon is trying to stop people who jump around taking their device with them. You've seen the ads from carriers willing to pay your termination fee just to get you as a customer. I've been with Verizon for 20 plus years and this doesn't bother me in the least. But of course people who think they can get a deal elsewhere, those grass is always greener people won't like it. Verizon is probably not concerned about those customers anyway.
Chinese phones that are vastly sufficient for everyone but the most extreme usage, can be had from $50 to $250.
If you buy them as part of a plan, or waste money on one of those insane >$250 phones without having a <em>really good actual reason</em>, then no offense, but you are getting ripped off by definition!
Also, sadly, those non-Chinese brands are Chinese phones too. Just "designed in" your country, in order to slap thrice the price tag onto it.
Or do carriers in the US not allow people to bring their own phones?
Over here in Germany, phone-less prepaid deals rule everything nowadays. Unless you want really large data volumes.
No attachments. You can buy sim prepaid sim cards like you buy clothes. Have a new one every month if you like. Have multiple and not use them if the volume is used up. Etc.
You know, if I wish one law upon the USA, it would be to force corporations to the free market they say they love so much but actually murder at every chance they can get. (Including employees organizing it balance the market too. Aka the good kind of unions. Not those who also just act like corporations but on the opposite side.)
Please ... do tell me a *single* new property of those phones that isn't actually a disadvantage?
Just one.
Go ahead.
And yeah, my old one has a longer battery life too, due to its brand-new high-performance replacement battery that cost me ... are you sitting? ... $10.
Because you become offensive because you can't handle reality.
There are two cases.
Either willingly. Which requires brain damage.
Or forced into. Which causes brain damage.
Still don't know why there isn't an national, or at least carrier-specific, database, in which stolen phones could be flagged and authorities alerted when tried to reactivate.
If this is really about protecting consumers from theft, then make it voluntary. Those concerned with theft would be able choose a locked phone. Those who value having an unlocked phone over security could then choose to have their phone unlocked. They would then also be able to see which option consumers prefer.
Being military, ive enjoyed the fact that its unlocked, when im in another country because of the military, i just pop in a sim and go, now who knows, att already sucks at unlocking phones if we deploy, yay.