4 ms·

I live in the EU and have never encountered a carrier locked phone. It's quite an amusing concept, and the first carrier to come up with it must truly have been

by oauea 6y ago

I live in the EU and have never encountered a carrier locked phone. It's quite an amusing concept, and the first carrier to come up with it must truly have been evil.

Fradow 6y ago
I live in the EU too (France), and any phone you buy directly from a carrier (generally heavily discounted, but tied to a more expensive plan) is carrier-locked, and can only be unlocked after a set amount of time has passed, or earlier by paying a fee (regulated by the EU if my memory serves me well). Perhaps it's because I was less financially literate in the past, but I remember that as being the only way in the 2000s. There might have been laws passed to limit that practice and its abuses. The smart solution, provided you have enough money, is to buy the phone elsewhere, and take a plan without a phone. It's always less expensive in the long term.
- SonicTheSith 6y ago
  Hmm, in Germany, the Telco's gave up locking the phones in 2017. Because it was to expensive. I can not remember if it was a hard lock - as in any other sim card is blocked or just their additions to the OS. bought a phone in 2017/early 2018 - Xperia 10, where on the boot screen a Deutsche Telekom logo appears but otherwise the OS unaffected by vendor edits/additions. But updates are really slow since they go through Telekom instead of directly from sony which is already slow.
- oauea 6y ago
  Interesting. More specifically, I live in the Netherlands. Perhaps we already had regulation about this, or I've just been lucky.
jokethrowaway 6y ago
I live in the EU and I've avoided carrier locked phone for my entire life. I know many who can't do math and paid twice the value of the phone for a locked device and some plan they never really used fully.
- jackjeff 6y ago
  My recollection is that 10-15yrs ago (in FR/DE/UK) it was cheaper to get a phone on a contract than buying it outright and finding a cheaper plan. That has not been the case for a long time. The last phone I had on contract was an iPhone 4.
woobar 6y ago
Isn't it about trade-offs? As long as my carrier provides my family with free iPhones, I will bear the inconvenience of requesting device unlock every few years. It takes 2 minutes to unlock it. If I am to pay full price for the device I will not get a locked one.
LargoLasskhyfv 6y ago
Funny. As I remember from the times of early GSM, that carrier lock was the default, because subsidized by them in exchange for long term contracts like 2 years. Otherwise you had to pay much more intitially, but it could make sense to calculate this, instead of blindly trusting the advertisements. /me mumbles something about "Kids these days..."

by oauea 6y ago

I live in the EU and have never encountered a carrier locked phone. It's quite an amusing concept, and the first carrier to come up with it must truly have been evil.

Fradow 6y ago

I live in the EU too (France), and any phone you buy directly from a carrier (generally heavily discounted, but tied to a more expensive plan) is carrier-locked, and can only be unlocked after a set amount of time has passed, or earlier by paying a fee (regulated by the EU if my memory serves me well). Perhaps it's because I was less financially literate in the past, but I remember that as being the only way in the 2000s. There might have been laws passed to limit that practice and its abuses. The smart solution, provided you have enough money, is to buy the phone elsewhere, and take a plan without a phone. It's always less expensive in the long term.

SonicTheSith 6y ago
Hmm, in Germany, the Telco's gave up locking the phones in 2017. Because it was to expensive. I can not remember if it was a hard lock - as in any other sim card is blocked or just their additions to the OS. bought a phone in 2017/early 2018 - Xperia 10, where on the boot screen a Deutsche Telekom logo appears but otherwise the OS unaffected by vendor edits/additions. But updates are really slow since they go through Telekom instead of directly from sony which is already slow.
oauea 6y ago
Interesting. More specifically, I live in the Netherlands. Perhaps we already had regulation about this, or I've just been lucky.

jokethrowaway 6y ago

I live in the EU and I've avoided carrier locked phone for my entire life. I know many who can't do math and paid twice the value of the phone for a locked device and some plan they never really used fully.

jackjeff 6y ago
My recollection is that 10-15yrs ago (in FR/DE/UK) it was cheaper to get a phone on a contract than buying it outright and finding a cheaper plan. That has not been the case for a long time. The last phone I had on contract was an iPhone 4.

woobar 6y ago

Isn't it about trade-offs? As long as my carrier provides my family with free iPhones, I will bear the inconvenience of requesting device unlock every few years. It takes 2 minutes to unlock it. If I am to pay full price for the device I will not get a locked one.

LargoLasskhyfv 6y ago

Funny. As I remember from the times of early GSM, that carrier lock was the default, because subsidized by them in exchange for long term contracts like 2 years. Otherwise you had to pay much more intitially, but it could make sense to calculate this, instead of blindly trusting the advertisements. /me mumbles something about "Kids these days..."