Providers should just stop pretending they’re subsidizing phones and make it obvious to customers that they are paying for the phone in installments.
T-Mobile does this and the phone payments appear as a separate item on your bill. Once you’ve paid off the phone balance your bill goes down correspondingly.
This way it’s easier for the provider to say you’re free to leave anytime but you still have to pay for that expensive hardware you’re keeping.
But I guess most providers would just rather continue pretending they’re doing you some sort of favor by “giving” you a $1000 phone for $200 while charging you too much for your plan and then feeling justified in charging you a $350 fine if you have the gall to doubt their generosity before the mandated Period of Appreciation has expired.
