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Verizon starts requiring 365 days of paid service before it will unlock phones
- sillywalk 9mo ago"Verizon was previously required to unlock phones automatically after 60 days due to restrictions imposed on its spectrum licenses and merger conditions that helped Verizon obtain approval of its purchase of TracFone. But an update applied today to the TracFone unlocking policy said new phones will be locked for at least a year and that each customer will have to request an unlock instead of getting it automatically." merger conditions.
- zamalek 9mo agoI mean, it was really difficult to get it unlocked after 60 days: you had to know the special password "for travel."
- joecool1029 9mo agoNot true, iPhones were unlocked automatically after this 60 day timeframe. My gf has been using a 14 pro max previously financed from verizon on t-mobile since just outside that timeframe. Here’s another fucked up policy that’s about a year old from T-Mobile: I very rarely financed phones direct through T-Mobile. My 15 pro max will be the last since I had to fight them for a device unlock prior to paying off in full. I would have paid it off in full if they didn’t change their policy to kill bill credits if you do pay early. I threatened them with costco’s 90 day return policy if they didn’t do it since I run dual sim for coverage, they relented. I am curious though, had I never had the phone unlocked, I wonder if Apple would have swapped in an unlocked board when they did my board swap for RCS issue?
- zamalek 9mo agoMaybe that's something Apple made them do? Certainly wasn't the case with Android.
- Terr_ 9mo agoWhat irks me about this is that consumers are already financially on the hook in terms of subscription periods and cancellation policies and conditional deals etc. The only legitimate reason to "lock" the phone hardware is to ensure the person doesn't pay with a stolen credit card and vanish... which doesn't take a whole dang year! The long locking-period is just a way to impose a stealthy and anti-competitive switching-cost onto consumers, denying them the right to use the things they own. It's also an example of how just because one doesn't care about politics... doesn't mean it won't "care" about you. > While the Biden-era FCC’s leadership criticized yearlong locking periods and proposed a 60-day unlocking requirement for all carriers, the Trump FCC appears likely to write a new industry-wide standard that would be welcomed by large mobile carriers.
- PearlRiver 9mo agoJust buy your own phone. A midrange Samsung is like 350 eurodollars these days.
- shadowpho 9mo agoSome of devices automatically lock once used on a carrier network
- charles_f 9mo agoIf you buy them unattached? First time I hear of that, do you have an example or source?
- pixl97 9mo agoThats some lawsuit level bullshit.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- OkGoDoIt 9mo agoI don’t believe that’s true. Locking is entirely something done by carriers for promotionally-priced phones attached to active phone plans. Can you point me to anywhere documenting your claim? That would definitely be a new low if true, but I really don’t think that’s how it works.
- rgovostes 9mo agoSadly it is true. It’s called Flex Lock or US Carrier Flex Policy: https://www.usmobile.com/blog/what-is-flex-lock/ https://www.usmobile.com/blog/what-is-flex-lock/ The gist is that it allows a third-party seller to stock a bunch of identical, not-yet-locked phones and offer a choice of carrier plans. The phone binds to whichever carrier the user first activated on. So if you’re buying a phone, verify it is not one of these units.
- 9mo ago
- teeray 9mo agoCan a carrier ever surreptitiously lock an unlocked phone, or is it only on phones financed or purchased through the carrier? For example, if I bought an unlocked phone and attached it to my Verizon plan, could Verizon lock it?
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- notamario 9mo agoTechnically possible
- Nextgrid 9mo agoHistorically phone locking was done at the modem level via an NCK code - if a phone is supplied by a carrier the modem will come pre-locked and will only be unlocked upon entry of an NCK code which the carrier has the secret key to generate (hash(secret+imei)). With this system if the phone is not locked to begin with I am not aware of any way to toggle this mechanism remotely. With smartphones however, the game has changed. Apple for example no longer locks their modems at all and instead rely on a software-level check as part of the "activation" process (at first boot where it also gets its client certificates/etc to talk to Apple services) - said activation policy can be changed remotely, and Apple are very cagey about their full capabilities. I have read of some vendors selling iPhones that would be unlocked at first but lock themselves to the first carrier they see. It's unlikely Apple would ever enforce or change an activation policy on a phone purchased directly from them, so you should be safe. But technically, it's up to the phone manufacturer. I am not sure what the Android situation is in comparison.
- userbinator 9mo agoI am not sure what the Android situation is in comparison. If you have root, you can easily unlock the modem and keep it unlocked.
- Dylan16807 9mo ago
- plagiarist 9mo agoPocket-sized devices with more computing power than we could have dreamed of as children, and society has somehow allowed it to become a completely miserable experience. I'm part of the problem. But I won't be (as much) after I get a used one and put Graphene OS on it.
- digiown 9mo agoBe careful about used Pixels. The Verizon and probably other carrier branded versions do not allow bootloader unlock at all, even after the modem is no longer locked.
- plagiarist 9mo agoThank you, I appreciate this a lot. That sure is enraging to know though.
- bandrami 9mo agoHaving lived in a lot of countries over the past couple of decades, I can say this is absolutely something Americans do completely wrong. Just buy your phone at full price. The "free" phones cost significantly more than a full price phone.
- kcb 9mo agoMy monthly plan payment would not go down if I brought my own phone.
- bandrami 9mo agoYour particular plan might not but there are BYOD plans that are significantly cheaper than anything you'll get on contract
- JaggedJax 9mo agoThere are plans available where that is the case. So the solution would be to switch plans or carriers to one that doesn't bundle the phone price in.
- paxys 9mo agoYou sure about that? Look up Visible, Mint Mobile, Total Wireless, US Mobile, Tello... Same carrier networks, same quality of service. You can even pay a bit extra for prioritized data and other fancy features. You can get basic unlimited plans for $15-30 and premium plans in the $30-50 range vs $100+ at the big carriers. The only difference is that you aren't paying for your "free" phone.
- jasonwatkinspdx 9mo agoYeah, I got screwed by both Sprint and Verizon in turn back in the day, so for ages I've just done T Mobile's prepaid plan with an unlocked phone. Works great, no particular coverage issues, never used enough data to hit any notable throttling.
- dpark 9mo ago
- chasil 9mo agoI would find it so deeply enjoyable to see the homes of Verizon management equipped with paddlocks on their bathroom doors, refrigerators, garages, etc. It would be my pleasure to announce to them that the terms of service dictate that the padlocks would never be removed, but the new subscription fees would be announced shortly. It would be delicious to see such a delightful revenge sink deep into their lives. Until such time, enjoy our esteem, you scoundrels!
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- fuckinpuppers 9mo agoAnother thing this administration reverted. It never ends.
- mullingitover 9mo agoBuy your own phone like everyone’s saying, but also use an MVNO instead of setting money on fire paying the major carriers. The better MVNOs even have multiple carriers and allow you to switch at any time.
- EvanAnderson 9mo agoTracFone / Straight Talk was my MVNO of choice, then Verizon bought them. >sigh< (I wonder if this unlocking policy will retroactively apply to the locked Striaght Talk phone I bought back in October.)
- jkaplowitz 9mo agoFrom a different news story about this change, it doesn't apply to any phone activated before the government issued its approval earlier this month. So any phone which you activated in 2025 is not covered by this.
- mullingitover 9mo agoSame. I switched to US Mobile, which is cheaper than Tracfone, has all three carriers, and thanks to eSIM they allow you to switch carriers any time you want.
- JCattheATM 9mo agoHonestly everyone should just use T-Mobile Connect. They make it very hard to find on their site, but it's their true prepaid service, cheapest plan is 5GB of data and unlimited calls/texts, and it won't a lesser priority like MVNOs are. The fact that people pay over $100/month for a phone bill is truly a uniquely mind-boggling American thing.
- mullingitover 9mo ago> and it won't a lesser priority like MVNOs are. Depending on the MVNO you can get first-class priority data (my plan has it), but also this stuff has never made a difference in my experience. When I was on 'lower priority' data the differences in speed weren't noticeable if I had service at all, and in the cases where I was at some event where there was a lot of devices contending for access to the tower, nobody was getting service.
- jdelman 9mo agoI’m switching to T-Mobile.
- hallman76 9mo agoGo a step further and switch to Mint, T-mobile's pay-as-you-go subsidiary. I'm paying $180/year for a single line. I've been on mint for ~3 years now. On Mint your traffic is routed with lower priority than T-Mobile's main customers. In practice, I have only experienced this at busy airports and an MLB game - where basically service dropped to near zero. This is in the Boston area. Obviously not ideal if you're in those conditions regularly. Otherwise it's been awesome. If the service is of interest my referral code is below. It gets you a $15 renewal credit for joining. Will the winds of votes love or hate a referral code? Who knows! apologies if I'm out of bounds. (I don't understand why it's out of bounds) [0] http://fbuy.me/vks2P http://fbuy.me/vks2P
- JCattheATM 9mo ago> Go a step further and switch to Mint, T-mobile's pay-as-you-go subsidiary. I'm paying $180/year for a single line. I've been on mint for ~3 years now. > On Mint your traffic is routed with lower priority than T-Mobile's main customers. Much better to just use T-Mobile connect. Same pricing without the lower priority. I pay $15/month for my line which works out the same to $180/year.
- paxys 9mo agoThanks FCC for looking out for the little guys!
- x13 9mo agodoes the FCC still exist?
- seam_carver 9mo agoOn Slickdeals, the 60 day unlock after paying for one month of service was often used for locked phones like the $49 iPhone SE. This prevents that.
- happymellon 9mo agoI haven't head of Slickdeals, but wouldn't you still be under the terms of the line contract? They aren't going to lose their money.
- toast0 9mo agoI got a similar deal; the phone was locked to tracfone (or one of the other verizon owned mvnos), no contract, just had to activate it and pay the first month's service. When the month was up, put it in a drawer. 60 days from activation, pull it from the drawer, connect to wifi, and it would unlock.
- analog31 9mo agoInteresting coincidence. I just ordered a new Tracfone for 50 bucks. I had assumed the unlock policy was 1 year. The same phone, unlocked, was much more expensive. Strategically, I figured that after being a Tracfone customer for well over a decade, I probably wouldn't get around to switching for yet another year, so I'm OK.
- analog31 9mo agoWell, I don't know if people ever look at old threads, but I had an inspiration, and decided to unlock my old phone before switching to the new one. Tracfone made it utterly painless. Now I have an unlocked phone should I ever travel to a faraway place and need to get a local SIM card.
- koolba 9mo ago> AT&T’s policy allows unlocking of phones on postpaid plans after 60 days if the device has been paid in full, or after six months for phones on prepaid plans. T-Mobile’s policy allows unlocking of phones on postpaid plans after 40 days if the device has been paid in full, or after 365 days for phones on prepaid plans. If the phone is paid in full, what is the justification for not unlocking it?
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- notamario 9mo agoPlaying devils advocate… In cases of fraud, it creates buffer time for the consumer who’s identity was stolen to notice and notify before the device disappears.
- Terr_ 9mo agoI can see that for credit-card fraud, etc, however I'd wager most such fraud will be detected in days 0-60, and comparatively none of it in days 61-365. (Are there stats?) So some buffer is legitimate, but not the amount they are trying to impose.
- exabrial 9mo agoWhy is anyone using Verizon?
- userbinator 9mo agoI still remember at the beginning of the mobile era, when there were tons of small "repair shops" that would unlock phones for a small fee. They are likely still around.
- giancarlostoro 9mo agoOne of my oldest MSN friends (I think I have him on WhatsApp now) would unlock iPhones and later Androids for ages, his status on MSN was literally "I will unlock your phone" or something like that. Guy was from Belize, cool dude.
- dunder_cat 9mo agoI'm glad I stumbled across this: life circumstances have allowed me go abroad for a trip the past two years. One thing I had forgotten about since the last trip were some of my group being unable to get one of the cheap prepaid data eSIMs because their phone was still locked to the carrier. I've been tempted to replace my aging iPhone SE 2022 (^1) with a trade-in deal and get a new phone, but it never occurred to me that would mean being forced to use AT&T's $10/day (capped at $100 in one billing cycle) "International Day Pass" during future trips until it had been paid off for long enough. (^1) I wish I wasn't so tempted after ~4 years, but the battery health has dropped to 75% and the performance has suffered dramatically. A new battery is on the table I suppose, but I am split between just putting that money towards a new phone.
- callmeal 9mo ago>I wish I wasn't so tempted after ~4 years, but the battery health has dropped to 75% and the performance has suffered dramatically. Won't help with performance, but I've found that keeping bluetooth and location turned off lets me use the phone for the whole day without needing a recharge. Only thing that eats battery is video calls.
- morpheuskafka 9mo agoWhy is anyone even tolerating a carrier selling them a phone locked for a single day (unless it is free with plan or something in which case there's nothing wrong)? If you're using an iPhone, buy it from the Apple Store, full stop. No reason not to. If you need financing they have that (ACMI). They also sell older models refurb (like new condition) to save even more. For a cheap Android (Revvl 60 or whatever), they'll just give you another cheap one next time you switch carriers, right? They are basically e-waste after a year or two and don't get updates. And basically the only flagship Android widely sold in America is Samsung which is also sold DTC, albeit only online, and sometimes has promos for direct purchase? Maybe not as much financing tho. The other OEMs either don't sell in the US, or have some DTC presence too (ex. OnePlus).
- m463 9mo ago> Why is anyone even tolerating a carrier selling them a phone locked for a single day When I graduated from college, a large majority of the recent graduates at my first job had new cars. I still see this trend - young people with the latest iphone and/or new cars, and not worrying about being tied to payments. I think this will happen... forever.
- toast0 9mo ago> Why is anyone even tolerating a carrier selling them a phone locked for a single day (unless it is free with plan or something in which case there's nothing wrong)? I sometimes buy carrier locked phones when the unlock period is reasonable and the locked phone + the required service is a good deal compared to buying unlocked. I don't think a 1 year locked period is reasonable though, unless it was locked to the carrier I actually intend to use.
- snvzz 9mo agoLegislation is sorely needed to protect consumers against such awful practices.
- daft_pink 9mo agoThis is why we buy phones directly from Apple. They come unlocked.
- ulfw 9mo agoOh Murica
- miki123211 9mo agoUnpopular opinion. SIM locking is actually good. If a carrier cannot trust you (especially due to bad credit history), they can't sell you the phone you want if you don't pay outright, and many people aren't able to do that. SIM locks are basically "repossessions but for phones." Nobody argues in good faith that banks shouldn't be allowed to evict you if you don't pay your mortgage, and that's effectively what a "no SIM locks" policy does for phones. To make things even worse, it's far too easy for fraudsters to buy a phone using a stolen identity, never pay a single installment, and instantly sell it on the second-hand market. For SIM-locked phones, the carrier can brick the phone until it is fully paid of, so that kind of fraud is not possible. Sim locks do enable some abuse, particularly around roaming fees, as you're not allowed to swap your SIM when leaving the country. However, They're a blunt tool unsuited to the 21st century internet-enabled smartphones. One could imagine a mechanism where the carrier is still allowed to brick the phone in case of fraud, but there's no actual SIM lock.
- digiown 9mo agoSlightly off-topic but if you want to buy Pixels for GrapheneOS or similar: never buy the Verizon version. They do not allow bootloader unlock even after the modem is unlocked.