I don't know about other countries but in Poland we have subscription based phones for ages from mobile operators. You get the phone for 1PLN but you pay for it with the bill for 1-2 years, when you get another phone with new agreement. I don't know about you but I call that subscription for device.
Ha, yes, you get to keep the phone, they even have to unlock it (remove the SIM lock), but you also still pay the monthly installments because it is a subscription. They just change the name of the line item to some other service.
It's supposed to incentivize people to move to a new fixed term contract. But people often simply just keep paying.
I only learned about that recently since I always buy my phone separately.
