Advocacy Group Asks FCC To Probe Efficacy of Wireless Industry's Voluntary Phone Unlocking Commitments 24
A public interest group has asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to look at whether the wireless industry's voluntary phone unlocking commitments are even effective, claiming the practice harms competition. From a report: The advocacy group, Public Knowledge, met with FCC staffers last week and filed the comment shortly afterwards, arguing the practice of locking phones to a network makes it "more difficult for consumers to change carriers," reduces the number of devices available on the secondary market, and hurts smaller players on the scene. The nonprofit filed the request as part of an ongoing investigation by the FCC into the State of Competition in the Communications Marketplace, conducted biennially by the agency. The group is hoping the agency will throw its weight behind policy efforts to change this.
Americans can unlock their handsets from the services of the carrier that sold it to them, but the procedure can be a headache. The fact that consumers can unlock them free of charge came about in 2015, when carriers were told to give customers a "penalty-free" way to unlock them under the Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act. The Act allows "circumvention (unlocking) to be initiated by the owner" but only "when such connection is authorized by the operator of such network" -- after their service contracts expire. Public Knowledge added that the practice of locking phones disadvantages low-income customers and places a "burden on smaller carriers, new entrants, and MVNOs in particular... due to a lack of handset availability," compounded "by the competitive disadvantages caused by agreements between the handset manufacturers and the larger service provides like AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, which smaller carriers may not be able to negotiate."
Americans can unlock their handsets from the services of the carrier that sold it to them, but the procedure can be a headache. The fact that consumers can unlock them free of charge came about in 2015, when carriers were told to give customers a "penalty-free" way to unlock them under the Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act. The Act allows "circumvention (unlocking) to be initiated by the owner" but only "when such connection is authorized by the operator of such network" -- after their service contracts expire. Public Knowledge added that the practice of locking phones disadvantages low-income customers and places a "burden on smaller carriers, new entrants, and MVNOs in particular... due to a lack of handset availability," compounded "by the competitive disadvantages caused by agreements between the handset manufacturers and the larger service provides like AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, which smaller carriers may not be able to negotiate."
Why are phones locked anyways (Score:4, Insightful)
That continues to mystify me and is prolly why phones have such shit software.
Easy to compete if you lock out all the competitors.
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That would be because the majority of phones are not sold to users but the carriers and you are basically renting it till you pay it off. With millions of them out there they need a cheap way to keep you from just moving it to another carrier (since its not worth it to send a repo-man out).
Personally, I always just buy unlocked phones but then I have never really needed the latest and greatest.
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For the last 2-3 phones, iPhones in my case, I just buy them outright.
I was under the impression that, at least for iPhones, the way to buy them was from Apple directly and you can make payments to them, and pick whatever provider you want.
With Apple Pay, you can get like 24mos interest free, and 3% off the price.
I don't believe you get any price break if you buy directly from a carrier, like Verizon, etc...do you?
If that's the case, why would anyone buy from a carrier?
How does it work wit
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According to what I can find with the Apple one, when you pay through them (really a separate company Citizens One) you are actually locked to the carrier you pick for 24 months. I suspect they put the same lock on the phone's id to enforce payment.
As for going through the carrier directly they make it so opaque that I am not sure you can tell if there is a price break.
As with Android phones... I have never gotten one direct from the carrier but I know people do that. I know Samsung does their own financing
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I also only buy unlocked phones and use a pre-paid plan. It seems like the least expensive route to go.
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Oddly enough, on some of the pre-paid plans they have recuring billing options (I know its just odd) and they are usually just a bit cheaper if you are a low usage user. I hate talking on the phone so I go that route.
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Dell doesn't or at least I have never ran into one.
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Well, being the original vender I suspect they have less on the line. Further, if its a Carrier that sold it to you they are probably subsidizing the price some so they are double in debt on it. Additionally, they made sure a mechanism was built in that they could blacklist the phones giving them the easy enforcement mechanism. Also, the market is 10x bigger for phones so there are more running around. Finally, phone loans are just risky my understanding is that almost half of them have been in default at o
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Personally, I always just buy unlocked phones but then I have never really needed the latest and greatest.
Basically same. I've had 3 cell phones, including my current, and had the first two for a while:
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Why do you care if people get more high end phones rather than utilitarian devices?
There are lower end phones available if YOU want one, but I'm curious why it makes a difference to you one way or another what another person wants and purchases?
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How are you subsidizing people buying expensive smart phones?
I don't get any money for buying my phones...?
Well, there may not be a LARGE market for utilitarian phones, but there is enough of a market out there for them that they exist and you can buy them.
They do exist out there for purchase...
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> Because there isn't a market for utilitarian phones
> because people are getting the pricy "style" phones
> pushed on them instead.
Yes, there is. I don't know who makes up that market. But they're out there somewhere; and in numbers sufficient that Nokia still makes their old-school brick phones. If I wanted one, I could have it in my hands... completely unlocked and usable on any GSM carrier... tomorrow and for less than the cost of a tank of gas:
https://a.co/d/4xgdUbN [a.co]
If I cared to dive into th
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I'm pretty sure the carriers are coming out ahead on selling you a phone over a two year period. I recently got a new phone but wasn't in a hurry so I shopped around a bit.
I went into a Tmobile since they are my carrier. The best they could do was $600 for the s22 but I had to upgrade my plan and give my s7 to them. I decided to just to buy it off amazon for $650, keep my s7 and keep my current phone plan. I got the device next day, popped the sim card in from my s7 and away we go.
Samsung even included an a
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That continues to mystify me and is prolly...
I think I found the connection.
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That continues to mystify me and is prolly why phones have such shit software.
Again, The software locks are mainly for the branding and AD placement. To a lesser extent they are also there to disable the builtin functionality of the phone so the service provider can sell it back to you as a subscription. (Wifi Ho
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What carriers do that? I have had phones from AT&T, Verizon, and now Spectrum, and I have never seen an ad displayed by the carrier.
Matches our experience (Score:5, Informative)
I've run into this in Canada. ;law says that they have to unlock the phone as long as long as you own it outright (she does), so she went to the Kudo store(...which, by the way, was also the Bell store, just to show how absurd this gets).
My daughter has a phone that was gifted, that she used for a year or so on the Kudo network. She wanted to move onto a Bell Aliant plan, but the people at the local Bell store told her the phone was locked to Kudo. Fine, we live in Canada where, just like the states, the
They said that they can't unlock phones in teh store, it has to be done online. Gave her a URL. Sent her home to do it herself.
Of course, the system didn't work: it kept asking her for a password and telling her the one she used was incorrect. Wanted her email, but wouldn't accept her email.
She calls the support line...nada. No help. They send her back to the website that doesn't work.
*I* get involved now: she's upset, and can't figure out their system, so Daddy to the rescue. I finally schedule a call-back with their tech support, as the wait times appear to be multiple hours (I waited on the phone for 1.5 hours and still was on hold). So we get the call-back the next day, and...the recorded menu system tells us it's Kudo tech call back, and then immediately asks us to "rate the call", and hopes that it had been effective, and then hangs up on us.
I gave up and paid a guy in a shady kiosk at the mall $20 to get an unlock code.
All of this is definitely intentionally poor/impossible to navigate tech support by design. They need heavy fines for this bullshit. The Dark Patterns are getting waaaaaay over-the-top at this point.
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This is way less of an issues these days, since December of 2017 all phones sold in Canada must be sold unlocked regardless of the carrier. It is becoming rarer to find a phone that is not already unlocked. If you are in Canada and have an older phone that is still locked, contact your carrier and get them to unlock it (for free) and then you won't be stuck trying to get it unlocked after you switch providers. Dig up those old devices from the junk drawer and plug in your current SIM card and get your carri
Only in America (Score:1)
Only in America you still get locked phones.
In the rest of the world, change carrier is as simply as swapping out the sim card.
Maybe in 2040 we can finally see America move into the 21st century.
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I've been with 3 different carriers over the years. I've bought phones outright while at each. I have also financed at least one from the carrier at each. In all cases where I financed the phone with the carrier, as soon as it was paid off, I have contacted the carrier and had the phone unlocked within a few minutes.
Its not a matter of "In The U.S." Its a matter of they lock it until you own it. Once you own it, they will unlock it with no problem. If you don't want a locked phone, just buy the phone and br