Yep. "You must consent otherwise you're opting out of everything in existence and must go live in a cave." It's not consent if they didn't even ask, and it's not consent if you want to say no but there's literally no other option in existence. Just opt out of the whole internet and mobile phones I guess.

[–] Mikina@programming.dev 4 points 2 weeks ago

I'm glad we have options here in Europe. Not many, but there are at least 3 mobile and internet providers at my location, so whenever one tries to pull something like this, I just call them that I'm switching providers. I've netted a permanent 50% discount and even managed to convince them to keep the discount at my old flat (which was a student's shared flat where my friends still live) and also transfer it to my new home I have with my partner.

As far as I know, they can give you massive discounts, but you have to be willing to go through hell and run into a good call operator.

But also, that was like 10 years ago and I didn't need to do it again. I can imagine that in the age of clankers, things may be a lot different (also with the transition to late-stage capitalism and enshittification).