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> I've never understood why people buy phones from the carriers rather than from a retail store or online and insert the SIM (for GSM carriers). Cultural momen
by Chaebixi 9y ago
> I've never understood why people buy phones from the carriers rather than from a retail store or online and insert the SIM (for GSM carriers).
Cultural momentum. In the US, phones used to be heavily subsidized by carriers via contracts. Even if you brought your own phone, and don't think the carriers gave you a big enough discount to make it economically justifiable, so the practice of buying "unlocked" phones never took off and was more of a niche thing.
That's all changed recently, with the death of long-term contracts, but old habits die hard.
- aidenn0 9y agoVerizon also used to not allow unlocked phones on their network. If the phone was not Verizon branded you were forbidden from using it. I'm not sure if that's still the case.
- untog 9y agoThat was also complicated by Verizon using a CDMA network - most third party phones are GSM and wouldn't work on their network. Luckily LTE means we're seeing the back of all this, though I think you still need a CDMA phone for areas that do not yet have LTE.
- sbalea 9y agoNo longer the case. However, they only allow devices that are certified to work on their network, and that means support for legacy CDMA. But if your phone is unlocked and it has the necessary bits, you can certainly bring it in. Also, all smartphones they currently sell are unlocked, as part of a deal with the FCC when they won the rights to some 700Mhz band