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A comment on Unlocking Cellphones Becomes Illegal Saturday in the U.S.. Parent comment

Re:Unlocking Cellphones Becomes Illegal Saturday in the U.S. by rcraft on Thursday January 24, 2013 @01:02PM (#5111013)
Unlocking your phone has nothing to do with taking advantage of the carrier subsidy. If you are under contract and "unlocked" you are still bound to pay your monthly fee to your carrier unless you pay the ETF or early termination fee.
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Re:Unlocking Cellphones Becomes Illegal Saturday in the U.S. by therandomguy on Thursday January 24, 2013 @01:16PM (#5111099)
It has got everything do with carrier subsidy. If you don't want the subsidy they will sell you a unlocked phone. Problem solved.
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Re:Unlocking Cellphones Becomes Illegal Saturday in the U.S. by lostnet on Thursday January 24, 2013 @02:26PM (#5111575)
No, they they have damaged the free market for phones and phone service using these subsidies to create bundles, so you will pay an inflated price for both your phone and your service.

Whether you buy it locked or unlocked you are being ripped off. They essentially learned it from the US employment/health insurance co-bundle.

Given that several branches have to spend considerable time reviewing just how noncompetitive the wireless industry is, it is kind of absurd for one to hand them another tool to continue competing on everything except price and service.

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Re:Unlocking Cellphones Becomes Illegal Saturday in the U.S. by rcraft on Thursday January 24, 2013 @03:08PM (#5111865)
False. I haven't taken a carrier subsidy since 2007 and I have to jump through hoops to get my phones unlocked.

If you buy a prepaid phone at full price with no subsidy many carriers have policies on how long you must be a customer of theirs before they give you the unlock code.

Additionally, if you buy a used phone on Ebay/Craigslist - aka nothing to do with carrier subsidies - this now requires you to break the law in order to unlock your phone.

Convinced?

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Re:Unlocking Cellphones Becomes Illegal Saturday in the U.S. by Terretta on Thursday January 24, 2013 @04:07PM (#5112224)
No, not convinced. I haven't taken a subsidy on the last 3 iPhones or Android phones and I've had no hoops at all to jump through, neither on AT&T nor on T-Mobile.

The iPhones, I simply demanded at the Apple store to pay full price (this is before the officially unlocked version was being marketed), and the first time I plugged the phone into iTunes, I got a dialog congratulating me on unlocking my phone. This was not widely reported, but always worked.

The Android phones, I can simply pull out the T-Mobile SIM and put in an AT&T one and I've never talked to anyone about it.

Both types work with pay as you go SIMs in Europe. I've never spoken to AT&T or T-Mobile about any of them.

Convinced?

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Re:Unlocking Cellphones Becomes Illegal Saturday in the U.S. by rcraft on Saturday January 26, 2013 @12:46PM (#5121037)
T-mobile prepaid requirement: "you have a minimum of 60 consecutive days of active service with T-Mobile"

http://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-1588

AT&T prepaid is much worse:

http://forums.att.com/t5/Prepaid/Unlocking-PrePaid-Phones/td...

"Requirements for prepaid wireless plans with AT&T branded phones: You have had AT&T service for six months or longer You can provide a receipt or other proof of purchase"

The last line illustrates how carriers are dictating policy in an effort to subvert the secondary phone market.

Even more frustrating in the same link you will see that certain AT&T phones are "ineligible" for unlocking presumably due to some arbitrary restriction.

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Re:Unlocking Cellphones Becomes Illegal Saturday in the U.S. by graywh on Thursday January 24, 2013 @02:31PM (#5111609)
They'll gladly sell you an unlocked phone, but they won't reduce the monthly rate.

T-mobile is going to stop offering subsidized phones this year--either pay up front or rent-to-own. Their monthly plans will decrease accordingly, so non-contract customers aren't getting hosed.

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