It all began simply enough. I had purchased an iPhone from Apple that was “unlocked” — and so, after almost 10 years with AT&T, I was moving to Verizon.  

At first, it was easy. Verizon said they’d use my iPhone X — tested it in the store — and I made the move.  

Three weeks of hell followed. Voice calls sounded terrible. Verizon said to talk to Apple because “it isn’t our phone; you didn’t buy it from us.” Meanwhile, Apple said, “Talk to Verizon. It’s a network problem."  

Calls and visits to the Verizon Store and Apple’s Genius Bar. Calls, escalations.  

Finally, an Apple senior advisor figured things out. It’s an unlocked Apple iPhone model # 1901. It’s a GSM phone. And Verizon is a CDMA network.  

So, in the world of techno doublespeak we now all live in, unlocked doesn’t mean “unlocked”; it means sort of unlocked.