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It's only a thing if you are on some form of lease plan where you don't own it outright. Pretty much every carrier in the US sells phones on a monthly payment for the device, which usually is just the cost of the device spread over 30 months, etc. While the device is still not paid off its carrier locked. After its paid off you need to jump through a few hoops but it's honestly not too hard. I'm not sure what the FCC is hoping to accomplish here, it's a similar arrangement to leasing/financing a vehicle, where the dealership holds the title till it's bought/paid off.
There are cases other than what you mentioned where the carrier refuses to unlock. During 2021, AT&T forced a phase out of 3G and provided allowed customers to get a free upgrade phone in the process. As a prepay customer, I took the phone but jumped ship to a different carrier. I tried to get them to unlock the phone earlier this year and they refused. There was no contract/lease involved, but they didn't like that I didn't remain a customer with them for (I think it was) 180 days after that.
I imagine people will have to start purchasing their phones outright. This will probably affect the lower class' purchasing power disproportionately, but personally, I don't see a problem with saving to buy rather than purchasing "on credit" so to say.
I think that would also see an eventual reduction in device costs eventually as more people will be unable to pay the premium costs of a flagship device. Or the mid tier devices will start selling more, androids popularity will probably rise too, matching the rest of the world
Certainly corporations will have to find a way to provide more affordable options until they can figure out another way to assure investors of the "infinite" wealth growth plan.
There are loads and loads of phones on eBay. You will quickly find sellers who do this as a business, not just some dude ditching his old phone.
They have consistent quality ratings (A, B, C, etc.) and pics of the product you will receive.
Bought my last 6 phones that way. No way I'd agree to a carrier provided, $800 phone.
I'm not purchasing expensive phones either, but I think it's important to note that this will probably have a significant affect on the industry (mostly in the US) and I'm not usually optimistic of how these changes affect the consumer in the long run.
We still have to live in the real world. Someone still has to make those new phones that you eventually hawk.
When shopping for phones to buy outright, I remember seeing that you can buy phones locked to specific carriers. Supposedly different carriers use some different bands and so the carrier specific version has the corresponding antenna/receiver.