Those are complicated questions to answer. Usually I live in Ecuador, though I’m currently living in Poland. I had ordered the 14 Pro to ship to my mom’s house in the US and had arranged to have her send it to a FPO (US military base in Poland) because if I buy the same model in Poland it costs over $500 more and if I can find one in Ecuador it will cost nearly double. I change carriers often and always go prepaid because I travel a lot. Yes, it doesn’t seem to be as much of a problem to buy the 14 Pro if you are tying it to one of the big US carriers. I only buy unlocked.