experience when I moved internationally. Of course disconnection varies carrier to carrier and times have changed (this was several years ago), but I got stuck having to pay in excess of $1000 for service and hardware that I could no longer use. On TOP of setting up service in my new country of residence.

I mean, there's honestly lots of opportunities for carriers to exploit a disconnect and charge more than was emphasized in the beginning. The carrier I was leaving for instance, had some stupid ass loophole predicated on the "reason" for the disconnect (essentially, the disconnect-fee-only option was only considered if the person died or was somehow incapacitated)

And after paying all of that, I couldn't even use the phone with any local carriers because the frequencies the phone was manufactured to work on weren't available with any carriers where I was living.