[vohk]

You are wrong, empirically. We tossed that bollocks out in Canada seven years ago.

Miraculously, carriers simply started offering "tabs" or other language where you pay the subsidized phone cost as an addition to your plan bill for the contract period, with a clause that if you cancel early you still have to pay up the difference.

Arguments in favour of locking are nothing but corporate apologia and business crying wolf.

[crazygringo]

Sure, but how does the company account for the losses from people who get the phone and then stop paying and switch to another carrier?

What happens is the overall price goes up to offset those losses, even when it's not explicitly labeled as such. That's just basic economics. Empirically.

[vohk]

Which part of this having actually been done in Canada and other regions, and what you're claiming not happening is unclear to you?

American Exceptionalism at work...

[crazygringo]

Which part do you not understand about prices having gone up as a result? So people are literally paying a price for it?

And stop with the country-based insults, please. It's not appropriate at all for HN. There's nothing "exceptional" about basic economic principles.