As long as you stay near the interstates or in populated areas T-Mobile is fine. I spend a lot of time in the outdoors and travel to sparsely populated areas and for the most part, if you don’t have ATT or Verizon, you would have no service most of the time. It is the same with Sprint. For the most part, the service is good on any of them, until you get into more remote areas so for most people, it won’t matter. I had hoped to be able to switch back to T-Mobile but can’t do it yetIn my experience, most people dogging on T-Mobile and riding the "they don't have coverage!!!" train haven't used them in the last six months with a modern device (read: supports Bands 12 [and 71 if in an area with it deployed]), rather are basing their opinions off of marketing from other carriers and what they read online from users with outdated devices that don't fully support the network...
I've been throughout 12 states + DC and had zero issues, except for West Virginia. But they've finally got that Band 71 spectrum to solve the coverage issue in areas like WV. I can use data to my heart's content on my frequent trips to Canada and not spend a dime on it. I even had free Wi-Fi on my last Delta flight that was subsidized by T-Mobile.
Perfect? Nah. Nobody is. At least I'm not spending $240 a month just to have a shiny red checkmark on my bill.
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Verizon No Longer Plans to Sell Unlocked iPhones
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I think you’re misunderstand the reasoning. You may be an legitimate buyer and seller. This is to combat those that like to go into an store, pay the tax on the device which is $80 on an iPhone X in my area and then turn around and list it on eBay the same day for $800. That’s a huge loss to any company. Just imagine if their is one customer, in every city at every store purchasing one device like this. And also think of them purchasing 5 devices in the same fashion. I’m a fan of this change.
[doublepost=1518527028][/doublepost]Such a misleading title. Clearly they said the devices will be unlocked after a period of time, it’s just that the time is currently unknown.
A lot of your are missing the point.The thing about it is that the carriers are ok with selling an unlocked phone at retail price because there is no loss in it. The issue is the amount of identity theft and fraud that causes such actions to happen by the companies. There are people that are willing to sell their “credit” to others just to make a couple hundred dollars by purchasing multiple devices under their identity by just paying taxes on the devices and then turning around and flipping them. That’s a loss of thousands of dollars by one person against the company. By locking them for a period of time, that prevents this or reduces it from happening.
?? I have always bought my iPhones on launch weekend - and all the ones I have bought (since the 5S at least) have been unlocked - first AT&T, then T-Mobile - we travel abroad regularly so I know for sure. In fact when I bought the 6S on opening day - I wanted to switch from AT&T to T-Mobile, but the Apple Store was already sold out of T-Mobile phones, so I bought the AT&T one, and the next day went to a T-Mobile store and switched the SIM card - no fuss, no muss. Left my grandfathered since 2007 "unlimited" AT&T plan for the much better T-Mobile one which supports Hotspot (AT&T didn't) and has practically free worldwide data & texting.
I have to say, I switched to TMob last Feb and for awhile it was a maddening experience everywhere I traveled as far as Internet services were concerned. I was ready to drop them as soon as the iPhone X dropped. But then sometime late summer/early fall -- can't really pinpoint it -- boom! near flawless service. So I'm still with them.
But I did buy an "unlocked" VZW phone at launch as insurance. Still eyeballing the MVNOs. The only reason I don't switch is I travel a lot and I really don't like having to buy a SIM everywhere I go.
Not sure.
You buy a car. You don't own it until you pay off your car loan. You can't do ANYTHING you like with the car without paying off the loan first. Same thing with a house. You don't own it until you pay off the mortgage. Why would a phone be any different? Verizon owns it until you pay it off.
If people want the freedom to do whatever they like with their phones, buy it outright or pay the damn thing off first.
Seriously?
I just switched from AT&T to Verizon, and while not unhappy, I am not thrilled. I get complaints that my voice calls are choppy, and I also have dead spots. I switched from AT&T because of the dead spots. Unfortunately, there are just as many, but in different locations. Voicee quality was better on AT&T, but data is much faster on Verizon (by a lot). I sometimes have trouble sending messages on Verizon which is a complaint I have heard form some of my friends. This is all on a brand new iPhone 8.
Elitist attitudes do not serve anyone well.
As I said earlier in the thread, it is illegal for Verizon to do this because of their spectrum leasing agreements with the FCC. Now whether they will actually be called out on this is up to us so if you guys just wanna continue just openly discussing it without doing anything then Verizon will continue to get away with it.
Sue. Sue. Sue. Maybe the guys that did the error 53 lawsuit will be interested.
pcva.law
Sue. Sue. Sue. Maybe the guys that did the error 53 lawsuit will be interested.
pcva.law
Wow...I can't imagine that this will help Verizon sales....I think they are making a huge mistake
I'm in same boat. Making the jump from Verizon to T-Mobile now that the lady needs to be on a new plan. I told the rep that I don't care if I pay more for T-Mobile than Verizon at this point because I'm sick of putting money in their pocket. I think Verizon has a terrible idea of what customer service is, and my belief was made whole when either their CEO or CFO stated to investors that Verizon doesn't have to worry about lower prices from T-Mobile because their service is better. I'm still searching for his exact statement. I can't remember if it was in their 10-k or not.
Example of Verizon statements that helped seal the deal.
“We believe that the subsidy model is an extremely good one… It’s done wonders for us in this industry. I think that to abandon it is a mistake."
"There's going to be certain customers who leave us for price, and we are just not going to compete with that because it doesn't make financial sense for us to do that."
"We're a leader, not a follower,"
Source for two quotes
[doublepost=1518533944][/doublepost]
Hahahahahahahahaha. Afford Verizon? As if paying $60-100 a month is a lot of money for a good portion of people owning Apple ecosystems. Cool story though bro. Make sure you reply back telling us how you're a Pharma or Tech bro making billions and developing the next hyper loop. Your internet cred just went up 10x. Keep it up.
It actually has no effect on the consumer so I don't understand why you oppose it. The article says the phones are locked before being bought (owned by Verizon) . Once purchased t(owned by consumer) the phones can be unlocked.
Wait - didn't Obama pass a law to make this illegal? Did that recently change?
Or is it just that if you ask them to unlock your phone for you, they must comply, but you can't do it yourself?
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I live in NYC and, from what I hear, T-Mobile is great here (I'm on AT&T). However, drive 30 miles north of the city and you're greeted with "No Service". My monthly bill for two unlimited lines, with a 15% FAN discount, is about the same as what I'd be paying for the same service on T-Mobile.
It happens a lot. A whole lot. My district has 6 stores and in the past 4 months three of them have been robbed. And the surrounding districts get robbed a lot as well. It seems every week we hear a story about a robbery at one of our stores in our market.
The Russian bots are targeting Macrumors now? Must be a slow day on Facebook
I don't work at Apple anymore (been years and years), so I don't get a paycheck from them. As a Verizon customer, I would prefer that Verizon customers are the only people I need to compete with for new devices when my family and friends are looking for them, rather than hundreds of thousands (or millions) being bought to scalp or used on other networks.
Other than a potential discussion about availability of Apple products in certain countries,etc., what other problems would be discussed on this forum, other than 1st world problems? That internet meme got worn out very quickly.
[doublepost=1518547581][/doublepost]
This is not to deal with thefts from consumers, which the ability to brick the phone has great to reduce robberies. This is meant to deter thefts from warehouses, transports and stores where the phones haven't been activated and thus Find my iPhone isn't applicable. If you get your hands on one of these, you can sell it to someone who will put a valid SIM in it and be good to go.
What is this "competition" you are worried about? I've been a verizon customer for years (switched from sprint to AT&T for the original iPhone, then to verizon around the time AT&T started throttling grandfathered unlimited plans), and have managed to get a new iPhone or two every year, direct from apple, simply by ordering one the day they go on preorder. It's not that hard.
Whereas getting verizon to unlock the phone may be hard. (We don't know yet. But other carriers don't always make it easy, quick, or reliable).
You must work in a pretty dodgy area if stores are getting robbed that often. In the last 6 years of working in customer facing jobs, I've experienced one shoplifter in a store I worked at and have heard of thefts from maybe 2 other stores in the area.
I have been able to get one for launch day as well, but family and friends have not been so lucky. The Plus models of the 6/6S/7 were not easy to get, especially at retail (which is where they prefer to shop, and the only place scalpers have been able to secure full price Verizon devices without an account).
"These steps will make our phones exponentially less desirable to criminals." Like yourselves ?
"This will make it harder for you to bring the phone to a competitor who has better rates, faster service and are less likely to make annoying corporate changes making you want to flee screaming."
Once you pay for your phone Verizon unlocks it - what's the big deal. If that's too difficult then don't buy directly from Verizon.
The same competitor also has a fraction of Verizon's coverage, hence the better rates.