I was screen-shopping a few unopened Pixel 3a on eBay, and it was a good deal at 66$. I could have had them shipped to India, or bought them through my relatives, effectively bypassing the need to pay duty, delivery fees or taxes. But lo, it's Verizon-locked. And maybe I could be wrong here, but apparently, flashing international ROM or custom ROM can't bypass this. So annoyed by this shit, because factory-unlocked devices get sold quickly, or are deliberately expensive.
Okay so I'm from a third world shithole but I still don't get it
In the west it seems that most people rent phones on contract from a mobile service provider, which includes the mobile service like calls, texts and data all in one monthly payment, is that correct? If so, why? It seems weirdly bottlenecked, I see people confused that their MSP doesn't "have a {phone_model}" and I'm bewildered by this.
Back in my original country, people buy phones like other gadgets from a tech shop mostly, usually outright, then separately they will buy a SIM card from an MSP store, which they then top up online or with an ATM type machine where you can top-up numbers with cash.
Usually your SIM will have a tariff, which will consume X money per SMS/minute/GB, and you can also use this cash mobile balance to pay online in many stores. There is usually not a cap on how much you can actually use MSP services, all data is effectively unlimited, you only pay as you use it, and you can also pre-pay to have unlimited data without charge for a certain time period. There isn't really any kind of monthly cycle, you just top up as you run out (hopefully before).
Carrier-locking is also not really a thing.
MSPs will often also sell you phones at their syores, but their selection is usually quite limited and mostly there for convenience. In the UK I do see tech shops carrying phones as well on display, but I've never actually met anyone IRL who acquired phones this way outright.
On the other hand online - people seem to just buy second hand off eBay, then get a separate SIM card, that's much more like what I'm used to, and what I myself do, but I don't know why this isn't more popular.
In the imperial core the "free phone every X months" gimmick (it's not free lol) works really well on their targets. I keep trying to convice people around me to just buy their own unlocked device because it's the same cost or better but they're kind of... addicted to an upgrade spiral.
I could never grasp the logic behind it. Well, they tried this locked carrier nonsense in India, and failed hard.
I switched from pre paid to monthly payments for comfort, I would run out of data because I’d forget to buy more.
I do buy my phone and sim separately though. The people that buy their phone from their internet provider probably do it because they want an expensive phone but can’t pay in 1 go. In the end they pay more though.
I feel like that's mostly on the person selling it. Any device bought outright won't be carrier-locked. People should not be selling carrier-locked devices. But that's probably why it's priced so cheap.
Can you use phones made in China? I'd like to get a Huawei phone but they are missing an important band I need for my area (usa). Seems like they are easier to find unlocked.
If someone is looking for an unlocked Pixel, they probably want Graphene for privacy and you can't get that on Huaweis.
On point. I'm going to move to a privacy ROM. Unfortunately, Huawei phones lack support - as in, the community maintains Pixel, Moto and OnPlus devices.
I'm in the same boat, I got a pixel 8 pro for ridiculously cheap but there's no plan to pay it off with a lump sum so I'm just waiting till carrier lock gets turned off.
