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Verizon refused to unlock man’s iPhone, so he sued the carrier and won
(arstechnica.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Cool, you live in that world already. Most networks don't lock phones anymore. Our first question to people who ask for phones to be unlocked is whether they actually tried the new SIM in it yet, as almost none of our phones are sold locked anymore.
As I understand it, the practice remains common in the USA. Verizon, the carrier in the article agreed to limitations, but other carriers routinely finance phones and lock them until they're paid off.