@0xDamian shared my experiences with mobile carriers, particularly O2, and using UBports on different devices. A participant had mentioned using a Google Pixel, which prompted me to summarize my own experiences as a response.
I have been a satisfied customer with O2 for years and have never used an eSIM. Instead, I buy used devices, mostly from the OnePlus series, and have been using UBports as my operating system for a long time.
As a business customer with O2, I had to scale back my business after an accident. During this time, I had conversations with some drivers about their eSIM contracts, and many of them struggled to get out of these contracts. Eventually, we found a good solution with Telefonica to get rid of the eSIMs and switch to alternative devices.
Nowadays, I use a Fairphone 4 running UBports and WayDroid and am very happy with it. I have also tried other devices like the OnePlus One and OnePlus 3T. The cameras work mostly well, except on the OnePlus 3T.
I also run my own servers and rely on free software to be independent of Google and other large companies. F-Droid is a great source for such applications, and I use Fenic as a browser. I am currently working on setting up a synchronization solution for the Morph browser.
Overall, I am very happy with my Fairphone and UBports and can recommend it to anyone looking for a sustainable and self-sufficient solution, especially compared to devices