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australia is in such a hurry to turn off its 3g network they are prepared to make huge numbers of 4g and 5g phones, and possibly all non-australian ones, unable to use their mobile networks. jesus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPlTz-3estM
@hikari reminds me of my experience with the US ATT 2G shutdown in ~2021 where they had *also* decided to block ALL non-ATT phone models and basically switched to a model-whitelist system-- I had to put my perfectly functional 4-month old (used) Sprint LGv50 in the drawer and buy a (used) ATT-branded LGv60. Most of my family similarly used ebay-purchased unlocked phones from various carriers and were also affected.
In the week or two from the shutdown to my v60 arriving, I basically had no way to send SMS or call anyone.
@hikari additionally, this means i now can't ever use intl. market phones, like euro-market phones that come carrier-unlocked and are (more likely to be) bootloader-unlockable.
my new Xperia that I bought (after my v60's USBC port died for the 2nd time) is not unlockable for US models, elsewhere they are. from what I've seen, they are the most unlock-friendly, they have a page on their site that generates unlock codes!, but only for specifically non-US models.
i resorted to buying a sketchy unlocker program that apparently logs into a remote unlocker dongle and does mystery things there. it took 2 weeks of constantly retrying the process before it actually unlocked!
nice that it worked, but it would be better if carriers couldn't stop people from doing what they want with their own phones......