What a stupid thing cell phone locking is. Good job FBI doing nothing but carrying water for large corporations against users.
You are probably thinking of years ago where they would lock the phone, even if you paid for it. That's not the case with T-Mobile - as soon as the phone was paid off your monthly bill goes down (since you have finished the monthly payments), and they unlock it.
Locking to a network is not justified for that or any other reason.
But hey if the phone is stolen they get a new customer to bilk while they bilk the poor victim of theft at the same time. You only lock because you know you are not competitive on price or service but have a slick sales technique. Lock 'em in so when they wake up they're toast.
Network locking is foul, deceptive, dishonest and knowingly so. Hitch your wagon to that by all means...
If the car is in motion they speed limit it, and once it turns off it won't go back on (sometimes they'll allow it to go on, but with a very low speed).
I'm not sure the repo model is the one to copy here.......
Basically the phone is not yours until you pay for it, if it's not yours they can lock it. It's not really that controversial. If they kept the lock after that they would be unethical, but they don't. (Phone companies did do that in the past though.)
Until you pay for it, the object is not yours, I don't see why you are okay with hacking something that isn't yours.
I had multiple subsidized phones with a couple of carriers, which were never locked.
The contract was post payed and a minimum duration applied.
I get why they would lock a phone on a pre payment plan. But since you're anyway bound to the contract, post payed, for the duration of the contract why lock the phone in the first place?
Nowadays I just get a phone at retail and be done with it.
Not to mention stored passwords, stalking, all kinds of stuff.
I know everyone is quick to jump on the FBI but let’s get informed first.
https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-settled-lawsuit-womans...
https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/7/22522560/apple-repair-mult...
'Apple pushed successfully for its name to be removed from the filings, and it’s referred to only as a “customer” in the complaint.'
'The repair services were performed by Pegatron's subsidiary, PTSI, pursuant to a Repairs Services Agreement ("RSA") between Customer, Pegatron and PTSI. '
It's not like how it used to be that the phone was "free" if you paid for a year service, with T-Mobile they literally sell you the phone at whatever price, and add a monthly payment to your plan.