I should have been well positioned for early retirement during the early smart phone gold rush but was just so put off by the Ma Bell feeling of the mobile industry that I had exited before most people had even entered.
No other sim will work in it until you take that photo ID/passport to the mobile companies office to have it unlocked. The photo id (even if expired) becomes the unlock code for the phone.
Made phone theft drop to pretty much zero.
Use a nuke to kill a fly?
Maybe once upon a time, but I'm pretty sure stolen devices can be blacklisted from networks these days.
Australia had been doing it since 2003. IMEIs have been around for 30 years? Everyone having a cellphone is still a relatively recent phenomenon, but according to Pew 80% of American adults had cellphones for several years already before carriers were forced to deal with stolen ones.
It's like when your apple laptop gets stolen and then starts using your applecare support and apple won't help you get it back.
Of course, if you decided not to pay your phone bill I'm sure that device would get blackslisted real fast.
You continually use the present tense when the argument... just doesn't apply anymore.
> I think I’m more concerned with the fact that the carriers know the IMEI of phones and claim that they can do nothing about stolen phones.
This is not a fact anymore.