I was helping someone who was having problems with an unlocked phone and came across something kind of nasty from Samsung and the carrier’s network. The phone had all the hardware to work right with other carriers but Samsung had coded it to only REALLY work with that carrier’s network. I found a way to reprogram the lte bands, which was the biggest issue, so now it works fully but… seriously?
So the story goes that phones used to be proprietary and networks “subsidized” the costs through the high monthly payments. Phones got more sophisticated and personal and the government forced the carriers to unlock the phones for customers who want to leave. So now the manufacturers program the phones not to work well when unlocked…
I think that if you pay full price for a phone that has the hardware to work on other networks, it should work fully when unlocked. Why pay full price to a carrier for a crippled phone that doesn’t get updates as quick as those bought direct from the manufacturer (due to carrier bloat) AND that’s worth half of what a fully unlocked phone is worth after-market?
What’s dumb in this case, was if he had bought the international variant, the phone would have natively been unlocked with all the bands ready to go.
Truthfully, everyone now-a-days should just buy direct from the manufacturer; get away from all the carrier branded phones.
