Near monopolies say monopolistic behavior is good for you and does not only benefit them. More bullshit at 11.
this post was submitted on 21 Oct 2024
379 points (99.0% liked)
Technology
58810 readers
4303 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Why does that even matter? Currently, if you have a locked phone and switch carriers, you have to buy an entirely new phone anyways.
At least this way, a user can pay once, and then hop around carriers depending on what's cheap.
Also there's no shot that locking users to phones costs that much because the unlocked version of a phone is only like 15-20% more expensive. Since when did you ever get a 70% discount on the MSRP of a phone for buying it locked??? They're straight ass lying lmao
That's such bullshit. Locked phones are like google accounts. At the end of the 2 years of owning it supposedly, you end up with all this shit you accumulated and no way to save it anywhere practically.
What year is it? Locked devices have been illegal in Quebec for, like, ever.
Locked phones should just be straight up illegal. It creates so much e-waste and is utterly ridiculous
I install alternative firmware, so no sale for you.
This is talking about carrier locked phones, not locked bootloaders.
For my past 3 phones I just bought straight from the manufacturer.
I recommend it and hope phone unlocking gets pushed through despite their whining
I've done this almost from the very beginning (back in the 90s) and always had very small mobile communications costs because I could easilly change providers and plans and even do things like use a local SIM card whilst abroad to avoid roaming costs.
I haven't financed a phone since 2008. I copped a fee for ending a 24 month contract a day early.
I just buy a cheap outright handset, flash a community ROM and avoid everything my telco offers past a $20 basic service. Handsets with community support go for years past what the manufacturers support.
"Narcissistic domestic abuser claims the exit doors that are locked from both sides are just for the protection of their spouse and its in their best interest to be secure"
"Taking away peoples freedom is whats best for users! It's the American way!"
So the story is 'if they have to be unlocked, we can't offer discounts on the phones'.
Okay fine but uh, the last time I used a post-paid subsidized phone, I signed a contract. That stipulated how much I'd pay for however many months, and what the early cancellation fee was, as well as what the required buy-out for the phone was if I left early.
In what way is that insufficient to ensure that a customer spends the money to justify the subsidy?
Bonus points: In Germany all phones come unlocked, regardless if you get them with a contract or not, and we still get much better discounts on the phones than in America.
Often times the total cost of the 24 month contract ends up being cheaper than buying the phone without a contract, so you essentially end up with a free phone plan
It's just a lie. I don't think it's meant to hold up to scrutiny, it's just meant to be repeated.
That's exactly right. Users will have to purchase phones on credit like we do for every other major (and sometimes minor) purchase. This doesn't change the relationship between carriers and their customers at all. It only changes their accounting.
Nono that wasn’t a service contract, it was a payment plan on the phone. And you can’t cancel the service until you pay off the phone.
It’s different…. Really….
load more comments
(7 replies)
Meanwhile Verizon has already been unlocking after 6 months
Locked phones are what led me into the rabbit hole of purchasing phones from manufacturer, since the carriers not only lock phones but hobble the OS.
It did mean understanding what was necessary for a phone to qualify for given carriers, but I can tech when I need to, and I tech for my friends when they need it.
In 2024, T Mobile and AT&T (and Verizon) have all demonstrated they do not engage in good faith commerce, and so right now they're being sniveling little shits (quote me please) because the FCC and DoC are escaping regulatory capture.
That is to say, the end users are tired of their shit. Apple and Google, too.
"Rabbit hole"? Isn't it as easy as just not going to a carrier's store for it?
We always bought from generic tech stores, almost always big chain ones - never got a carrier-locked device. Is it different in the US?
A lot of the big tech stores here in the US have separate counters for each of the major mobile carriers, and sell devices that are locked into those contracts. You can sometimes get unlocked phones from big tech stores, but most of what they carry is locked to a carrier.
My T-Mobile phone that's been unlocked and moved over to Google Fi has the T-Mobile image whenever you start up the phone. I'll only buy phones directly from the manufacturer now.
You'd have to flash new firmware for that to change. In the old days each phone was carrier specific and had to have the exact right firmware but now they're fairly generic and are cross compatible (do your own research). You could check XDA Developers for the process.
Question: I bought my phone unlocked several years ago. I have AT&T. But apparently, because I didn't buy it from AT&T, my visual voicemail refuses to work
I've tried and given up several times to fix it, and it's not a huge deal; I just miss being able to check my voicemail without calling it.
Do you happen to know anything about this? Every "fix" I've found has failed so far
Is there a technical term for when a company or corporation makes a statement that is a blatant bad faith argument like that?
If none exists, I'd call it "Corporate massturbation". Because they're trying to jerk everyone off.
Edit Here's another one: "Corporate Anal Ostriching." Because they're shoving their heads up their own asses
It's always the same argument. "This objectively bad thing for consumers is actually good for consumers because it allows us to offer a lower price!"
No, dipshits, you are choosing to make your product shittier than necessary and charging customers to undo your shittery. That's not some external thing, it's something that you chose.
Gaslighting?
Not even close.
They aggressively buy spin off services to ensure a locked market as well.
Cricket wireless was a on AT&T network provider that outshined AT&T because it allowed any device + better prices.
So naturally they bought them out and shutdown the any allowed devices to force you into buying a carrier phone to ensure your device will be locked.
Never buy a phone from your carrier, they will do some evil shit to try and force you to stay
It was probably incompetence more than malice but T-Mobile customer service incorrectly told me multiple times that I was not allowed to pay off my phone balance early to unlock it. I'm on US Mobile now and I'll never go back to postpaid.
With Deutsche Telekom, never attribute to incompetence that which can be attributed to greed.
If they are good, why then the Europe ended that practice nearly 2 decades ago?
and behold all of the terrible consequences!
They must hate freedom!!
If I don't own my phone, then I'm not paying for it. Period.
Exactly. No further discussion whatsoever.
Ohh look a corpo has opinions about your property 🤡
Remember that nextime you pay for a subscription
It's weird to see T-mobile taking this stance. I switched to them years ago because they were one of the few that supported unlocked phones, and even offered them for sale. Their policies might have changed on this, but I just bought an unlocked phone off Ebay this Summer and all I needed to do was pop my sim card into the new device. Hell I had to specifically install the visual voicemail app because there wasn't any bloatware on the phone when I got it. So I guess I'm not following what their complaint is about?
Every carrier lets you use an unlocked phone on their network
T-Mobile no longer lets you buy unlocked phones from them
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(4 replies)
But if we unlock your phones from the start we lose control over you :( pwease
They shouldn't be locked at all. If the phone is included with the contract, it probably requires you to pay it off if you cancel early anyways.
view more: next ›