Traditionally in the US, carriers own customers and mobile device manufacturers distribute through them. Many customers lease-to-own handsets on 'plans', with DRM in-handset to ensure the customer can't easily leave the 'deal'. However, Apple began to change this status quo by launching the iPhone and demanding customer ownership. Carriers derive revenues from customer network use. Any carrier that sees a major push toward dropping them is not going to be happy. But it will happen, eventually. But not if Android fails to support it. We desperately need better firmware. Everyone is locked in. There is no better time for an open phone...

If you try to ban the future, it will just happen elsewhere. - Paul Graham (2017)