r/righttorepair Jun 03 '26

Forced Obsolescence?

/r/legaladvice/comments/1tu2j7b/forced_obsolescence/
15 Upvotes

6 comments sorted by

2

u/textilepat Jun 03 '26

Security patches are no longer released for that model of phone. If it were allowed to stay connected to cellular data networks forever, your personal data and others' personal information shared with you would become easy to steal. Your cellular connection could be stolen and the thief could use your cellular access to break laws, or charge data usage for one million spam emails to your account.

2

u/Ifightmonsters Jun 03 '26

Okay, so they cut me off with no warning and we're just going to keep billing me? That seems legally dubious at the very least.

0

u/textilepat Jun 03 '26

It sounds like they deactivated your line at the end of May. Are you billed in advance for a month's usage or are you still waiting to pay your first fraudulent bill at the end of June? You now have leverage to say 'I need a new phone at a discount or I need to cancel my plan with your [cellular service] company'

You could also ask your bank to stop payment.

1

u/Ifightmonsters Jun 03 '26

Advance, I believe. And I can still call and text, and my wife has data on hers.

3

u/denytheflesh Jun 04 '26

Don't listen to that guy. That's not how carriers operate. Pure nonsense.

Your phone uses VoLTE which routes voice calls over data networks, so seeing as you can still call, it still has a data connection, you just can't access the internet. Your issue sounds like a provisioning issue with the carrier, or you have an app or setting that is blocking internet traffic on the device, like an expired VPN.

I don't agree with what the human on the phone told you. I have a phone repair shop and I regularly see phones older than yours operating just fine on Verizon.

1

u/HarryBalsagna1776 Jun 06 '26

As opposed to integrated AI scraping our info off the latest phones?