Verizon will give you a Pixel 9a for free if you add a new line
- ?
- Anonymous
- Iby
- 10 Apr 2025
S I R E, 10 Apr 2025I'm not exactly sure how it works now but couple month... moreYeah, you think American carriers are bad, Australian telecom is something else altogether, lol.
More seriously, while it may be possible to bypass the carrier lock on the software side (Vivo isn't in NA, so I'm not sure how easy this is with them), IMEI blacklists exist too, and running off with an unpaid phone is a great way to end up on one.
On the flip side, at least the carrier branding on the outside of the phone has largely gone away, and depending on the OEM, even the boot screen too.
- S I R E
- KgQ
- 10 Apr 2025
Anonymous, 10 Apr 2025Interestingly, Verizon was under a consent decree to NOT ca... moreI'm not exactly sure how it works now but couple months ago my landlords son who lives in Australia was forced to upgrade his device due the ban of all 2G, 3G, 4G and non approved 5G phones, it is a Vivo something. So anyway, he gave that phone to his father but forgot that it is carrier locked with Telstra.
Issue is that Telstra unlocking line can only be connected if you are using an Australian network and are in Australia, their website is useless looping back and forth in same pages and the unlock charges are vague between $25 and $80 AUD.
I've tried to explain this to my landlords but their nephew claims he can get it "fixed". I don't know of any means to unlock carrier locked phones for free and I don't wanna get in any drama with my landlords telling them that the nephew might be lying.
I'm not the most technically inclined person, but I've read and seen enough to know that this is fishy.
This kind of hassle is exactly why I hate carrier locks.
Another is that I've tried to buy old phones from the US that I've wanted to collect but always worry about them being carrier locked.
Plus I hate these network providers printing their brand name on the phone in the most bold and obnoxious way.
- ?
- Anonymous
- Iby
- 10 Apr 2025
S I R E, 10 Apr 2025Carrier locked phones should be illegal. I don't under... moreInterestingly, Verizon was under a consent decree to NOT carrier lock phones as a condition of receiving their 700MHz spectrum (LTE Band 13) ~15 years ago. They got permission to revert a few years ago claiming that it was making phone theft an issue. Currently their policy is to auto-unlock after 60 days. For comparison, T-Mobile claims to auto-unlock after 40 days if your device is paid off, and AT&T only will let you unlock after 60 days if the device is fully paid off (though Pixels and iPhones can be auto-unlocked).
The two main points are:
1. Only Verizon will unlock a phone that you still owe on (although T-Mobile has an undocumented temp unlock for Android phones if you're travelling abroad).
2. Many people are financing their phones, or getting then for "free" (via bill credits) and are locked into their current carrier anyway.
- ?
- Anonymous
- Iby
- 10 Apr 2025
Anonymous, 10 Apr 2025Bootloader unlocking isn't carrier specific, its a pro... moreCanada is usually stuck with the same locked down version as the US. Occasionally Mexico gets a different model, but like you said, it's usually missing key bands for US carriers.
- ?
- Anonymous
- y26
- 10 Apr 2025
eepymeowers, 10 Apr 2025verizon has terrible cell service and is very restrictive o... moreBootloader unlocking isn't carrier specific, its a problem for all carriers phones in the US. It has been over a decade now since nearly every single Android sold in the US is sold with a locked bootloader meanwhile Canada and Mexico just a few miles down the road get unlocked bootloaders. It makes sense for phones bought from a carrier but the cell OEM's should offer a separate version that can be bought from them that is unlockable rather than being forced to import a version of the same phone from another country that is unlockable but then lacks the necessary cell bands :(
- ?
- Anonymous
- y26
- 10 Apr 2025
S I R E, 10 Apr 2025Carrier locked phones should be illegal. I don't under... moreCarrier locked phones are the best thing that ever happened to the cell phone market here bro. Before that we had contracts where you were locked in and had to pay a separation fee if you left early. Now their is actually competition and you can bounce around the carriers and have them pay you to switch to them. For example, if you go to verizon right now you can get get 4 iphone 16 pro max's for free and walk out the door paying only taxes, then in 3 months go to tmobile and they will pay those phones off for you with no obligation to stay with them or anything, just because of competition!
- ?
- Anonymous
- wrc
- 10 Apr 2025
Carrier-Free Unlimited Service 4 Laife
- S I R E
- KgQ
- 10 Apr 2025
Carrier locked phones should be illegal. I don't understand how USA of all countries is the one with absurdly high share of carrier locked phones.
Especially considering how difficult and time consuming the unlocking process is for no reason. Plus the online scams that get elderly and non-tech people.
"Free unlocking service" *but you goota pay for this subscription or code or whatnot to get the "free" tool*
Such a scam that is.
- eepymeowers
- 4}d
- 10 Apr 2025
verizon has terrible cell service and is very restrictive on bootloader unlocking (it's impossible to get a modern verizon phone's bootloader officially unlocked)
- M
- MisterTrueRomance
- 8mP
- 10 Apr 2025
AI subscriptions are weird now that everyone and their grandparents know there is no magic involved. An excellent model would take ~100GB of storage (a decent one even less) and at ~200GB the improvements are only around 15% and it becomes less and less the bigger the model gets so you might as well download and run an open model locally on your device if You have a decent laptop or tower PC. You don't even need an NPU but it would be nice to have one nonetheless as it's much more efficient when running these models.