3 ms·
This is a great business model from the standpoint of making profits (less so from the standpoint of ethics or consumer satisfaction). Most people don't travel
by csense 13y ago
This is a great business model from the standpoint of making profits (less so from the standpoint of ethics or consumer satisfaction).
Most people don't travel internationally very frequently, and region locking is not something that's marketed, so they only discover it when they actually travel, and then they're forced to buy another phone!
Forget region locking, can't they inflate their profits further at their customers' expense if they just use GPS or tower location to deactivate the phone when the user gets 200 miles from home? That would increase your market from international travelers to domestic travelers...
- r00fus 13y agoMost folks don't buy another phone and the carrier makes a bundle on $2/min calls from the foreign country. The smarter folks buy a cheap $30 GSM/CDMA phone before the trip, the even smarter ones have a world phone and confirm it's capable of taking foreign sims (though having a fallback $30 GSM phone isn't a bad idea).
- threedaymonk 13y ago> having a fallback $30 GSM phone isn't a bad idea Especially if you need to use SMS two-factor authentication on your normal home number. Trying to make a bank transfer when the code is sent to SIM A and the data plan is on SIM B is otherwise an interesting challenge. (That's the voice of experience.)