shut off phones?

Question

can a phone company disable the phone.............i know they shut the account.........but i mean completely shut the phone all together...................

Answer 1

not unless they own the phone.

Answer 2

depends on the phone company

verizon just makes the phone have no signal
t-mobile stops any in-going and out-going calls and texts
(i know these two from experience)
i dont know what the other phone companies do

Answer 3

No. They can suspend or cancel the account so that you cannot make or recieve calls, text, etc. But they cannot turn the handset itself on or off.