The Federal Communications Commission is letting Verizon lock phones to its network for longer periods, eliminating a requirement to unlock handsets 60 days after they are activated on its network.
The change will make it harder for people to switch from Verizon to other carriers.
In the US at least, you can buy Apple devices on monthly installments, which seems to be the same thing as financing it with a carrier, except without the carrier. I would think Google probably has something similar for their phones?