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I posted this and was wondering how this would affect AT&Ts business at all. If you’re carrier-locked or not, wouldn’t you still have a contract to pay and be on the hook for monthly fees? And if you don’t pay, be forwarded to collections?

(I’ve never had a carrier locked phone and never understood why people buy them.)

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Yes, this is exactly right. If you owe money on a device, even if you unlock it, you still owe money. Same as if you're under contract with the carrier...you still have to fulfill it, or pay termination, regardless of phone status.

Then the whole locking thing doesn't really cause any revenue to the carrier... unless you do this to force people to use your carrier for X years and calculate revenue based on that.

In any case, at least here in Switzerland, carrier-locked phones aren't a thing anymore - I guess they realized it's just stupid and impractical.

ATT has the worst policy on locked phones too. Say you buy a iPhone from Apple that works with ATT. Even if you pay in full it’s still locked. You have to contact ATT to get it unlocked. Verizon just has your phone locked for 30 or 60 days then they just unlock it. Seems like ATT is hoping you just don’t go through the hassle of unlocking it. I mean personally now I just get my phone through Apple and not carrier locked.

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