The Federal Communications Commission is letting Verizon lock phones to its network for longer periods, eliminating a requirement to unlock handsets 60 days after they are activated on its network.
The change will make it harder for people to switch from Verizon to other carriers.
My latest phone I bought refurbished and unlocked, and I switched to an MVNO called Tello. Couldn’t be happier.
https://tello.com
Tello is solid, assuming you don’t need support beyond ‘how do I make phone calls’ tier 1 support, and that you don’t regularly get connected to an oversubscribed tower.
I’ve had tello as my second line for years and it’s fine, $6. But I tried to move my folks to it, and the tower we connect to at home is so badly saturated, data literally stops working during the day. Tello uses tmo, and tmo gives MVNOs qci8 (lower is better, 6 is ‘priority’ data). It’s the only downside to tello (but any tmo mvno will have the same issue).
Honestly…buying phones through the carrier is one way to stay poor (or at least get stuck in an overly-expensive cycle). So more accurately, it’s a case where “having more money available makes it cheaper”.
Almost always, carrier subsidized phones do so with statement credit that keeps you tied to that carrier/plan for 2 years or more.
You could pay off early, or you could switch carriers…but then you’re missing out on that subsidy.
Alternatively, if you buy through OEMs, especially for flagships, they often have trade-in deals for previous phones, and often times they are quite good.
And if you aren’t looking for a plan with phone subsidies, you can find much less expensive service.
Would I be able to keep my old phone number if I switch to them?
Yep - all service providers support porting. The process for tello is very straightforward and self-service. And if tello doesn’t work for you, porting out to somewhere else is also stupid simple and fully self-service on tello.