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Cellphones Government United States

The US Could Soon Ban the Selling of Carrier-Locked Phones (wired.com) 62

Posted by BeauHD from the fingers-crossed dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: In the U.S., a complicated combination of corporate interests and pre-smartphone era legislation has resulted in more than two decades of back and forth about the legality of phone locking. It's looking like that battle could ramp up again next year. The transition to a Biden administration could shake up the regulatory body that governs these rules. The timing also coincides with a congressional proceeding that takes place every three years to determine what tweaks should be made to digital rights laws. 2021 could be the year of the truly unlocked phone. For some activists, it's a glimmer of light at the end of a very long tunnel.

[H]ow could carriers be forced to provide phones that are unlocked by default? There are a couple of promising avenues, though neither are a given. The "agenda" here meaning something to be decided by a regulating body. In the UK, the regulator Ofcom made that call. The US Ofcom equivalent is the Federal Communications Commission. Under its current leadership of Trump appointee Ajit Pai, the FCC has been staunchly pro-business, passing legislation like the repeal of net neutrality at the behest of companies like AT&T. "Getting this done in an Ajit Pai FCC would be extremely difficult and very unlikely, given how friendly that FCC has been toward private companies and broadband providers," Sheehan says. "Whether or not that could happen in a Biden administration, we don't know. I think it would be much more possible."

Another route would be to take the problem back to its source: Section 1201 itself. Every three years, the US Library of Congress and Copyright Office hold a rulemaking proceeding that takes public comment. It's a chance for advocates to make their case for amending Section 1201, assuming they can afford the legal fees necessitated by such an involved, drawn out process. It's a less overtly political process, as the key decisionmakers at the two institutions don't come and go with each presidential administration like they usually do at the FCC. These sessions have already yielded positive outcomes for fans of repairability, like an exemption that took effect in 2016 that made it legal to hack car computers and other devices. The next proceeding is currently underway. If citizens want to urge the government to amend Section 1201, the first round of comments are required to be in by December 14. Responses and additional proposals will go back and forth through the spring of 2021, until the Copyright Office ultimately decides which changes to implement. Both Sheehan and Wiens are working with other advocates to make their case for a future of unlockability.
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The US Could Soon Ban the Selling of Carrier-Locked Phones More

The US Could Soon Ban the Selling of Carrier-Locked Phones

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  • There's no need for the law to get involved here. You can buy cell phones from many many sources.

    • Agreed. This is just politicians trying to come up with new laws to try to justify their existence.

      • Agreed. This is just politicians trying to come up with new laws to try to justify their existence.

        Amen, brother! Those motherfuckers are not in office to serve the interest of citizens, they've been paid for by big business fair and square! Now, after taking the bribes, they're all like "let me make sure things are fair for consumers"? Who the fuck hired them to do that?! I don't know about you but it just makes me want to PUKE!

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by rtb61 ( 674572 )

      More like this is the first step, unlocked from service provider, next step, unlocked from store, with full end user access to root to install what ever they want to install, OUT OF THE BOX.

      • More like this is the first step, unlocked from service provider, next step, unlocked from store, with full end user access to root to install what ever they want to install, OUT OF THE BOX.

        Sounds like the wish list of a terrorist to me.

        How long have you been a terrorist anyway?

        I bet a cop's dog would think that your car smells like marijuana.

    • Well, law already affects the price of smartphones... a Federal Subsidy has been in cell phone prices since the beginning.

      The thing about provider locks is trying to prevent "churn", constantly going from one provider to another. Service price pays off some of the value of a cheap phone, so that's why most post-paid offers come with contracts.

      • Service price pays off some of the value of a cheap phone, so that's why most post-paid offers come with contracts.

        Right, and as everyone knows, when you finance something, you don't own it until you pay it off ... if then. That's why the bank has a key to your house and a key to your car. That's why, when you buy a box of Tide at the grocery store with a $2.00 off coupon, they prevent you from leaving the state with it. The grocery store subsidized your Tide to get you into the store ... that Tide is

        • The bank has a key to my house? That's interesting considering I changed the locks because I didn't like the cheesy qwikset locks that came with it.

        • Service price pays off some of the value of a cheap phone, so that's why most post-paid offers come with contracts.

          It should be obvious to anyone with a mental age of over five that you are still tied to the contract even if you use the phone with your other SIM, sell it to someone else, or send it to land fill.

          The main effect of locking is to reduce the second hand value - which leads to more phones going to land fill.

          Locking phones is abusive behaviour, and should be illegal. However, AFAICT, most U

          • Service price pays off some of the value of a cheap phone, so that's why most post-paid offers come with contracts.

            It should be obvious to anyone with a mental age of over five that you are still tied to the contract even if you use the phone with your other SIM, sell it to someone else, or send it to land fill.

            The main effect of locking is to reduce the second hand value - which leads to more phones going to land fill.

            Locking phones is abusive behaviour, and should be illegal. However, AFAICT, most US carriers are abusive and ought to be illegal.

            It should be illegal to mess with a phone, cheap or not, any way. The problem is if it is locked, even if you unlock it, it has already been messed with. I ONLY. buy factory unlocked phones (favorite: SONY) And don't even get me started about the smutware the carrier installs... BTW I believe most of European countries carriers do not lock the phones. Must be a law or something...

    • True, but will your carrier allow you to use that phone? When Virgin Mobile was around they required you bought the phone from them and it was locked. You had to be a customer for at least two years before they'd unlock it.

      Sure you can go to another carrier. But will they be more expensive since you're not buying a phone from them?

      Many things have changed over the years. But finding ways to not be charged for something only to be charged for something else is always going to be around.

    • There's no need for the law to get involved here. You can buy cell phones from many many sources.

      You don't seem to understand the problem. Let's say you signed up for service with Metro by T-Mobile after you saw they were running a holiday promotion like the current one for a 2020 iPhone SE for $49.99.

      Imagine for a moment that there isn't a worldwide coronavirus pandemic and we're free to travel. You decide you want to travel outside of the U.S. to visit family and friends for the holidays or you need to travel outside of the U.S. for business in the new year. You'd probably want to take your phone wit

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by PPH ( 736903 )

        a 2020 iPhone SE for $49.99

        You do know that iPhone doesn't really cost $49.99? More like $400. Maybe more, because there could still be some hidden subsidies. So your cheap iPhone is being subsidized by a long term contract. And the locking thing is just to keep you from picking up a $49.99 iPhone, dropping your service and switching to another carrier. Or maybe even travel outside the USA where they will not likely be able to enforce the service contract terms. Life's a bitch when everyone doesn't give you cheap/free stuff.

        How abou

        • You do know that iPhone doesn't really cost $49.99? More like $400.

          You do realise that if you buy on a contract, you are still tied to the contract, even if you take the phone to another planet or it is eaten by werewolves. The point of locking is to destroy the send hand value so the phone goes to land fill, and more people end up buying new phones.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by PPH ( 736903 )

            you are still tied to the contract

            Enforcement is a problem.

            The point of locking is to destroy the [second] hand value

            Require mandatory itemization of the phone loan in the carrier bill and once its paid, it has to be unlocked.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by dryeo ( 100693 )

              The way it works here is that the contract includes the itemized cost and such. I signed a 2 year contract the clearly stated the hardware cost $300 to be paid in 24 $12.50 payments and I could break the contract at any time by paying off the balance. The hardware was unlocked as the law calls for here.
              Like any bill, I could have refused to pay it and had bill collectors phoning and it entered on my credit rating.

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by PPH ( 736903 )

                The hardware was unlocked as the law calls for here.

                I don't know where 'here' is. But this is what we need in the USA.

                Like any bill, I could have refused to pay it and had bill collectors phoning and it entered on my credit rating.

                That's easy to dodge here in the USA. Just don't buy the phone in your name and use a prepaid card. Who's credit rating are they going to ding?

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by dryeo ( 100693 )

                  Here (Canada), you can pay cash upfront and not need to give your name or sign a contract, which is how I bought my current phone. Or sign a contract and have to show ID or perhaps a credit card, which is how I signed up for my LTE internet thingy with the 24 easy $12.50 payments.
                  They're also not allowed to charge interest, but they get around that by jacking up the price of the hardware. It's usually cheaper to pay cash upfront.

        • How about you pay retail price for that iPhone? And then you are free to take it where you want. Or if $400 is too much, you could always buy a $50 flip phone. Allowing phone locking just lets carriers sell phones on contracts. Outlawing it removes that option for many people. So it will be the $400 iPhone or the $50 flip phone. No other options.

          In countries where unlocked is the norm and where telecoms providers are expected to accept any/all phones as serviceable for contracts, you can pick up perfectly good used iPhones for very cheap as they're ubiquitous. The original iPhone SE (for example) can be had for around £50 (equivalent to $65) on ebay in the UK and this comes with all the same OS and software support as the current iPhones on the market.

          In the UK, providers use IMEI blacklisting to deter fraud as well as to provide theft pr

      • You don't seem to understand the problem.

        Why does it seem that way? Your example was of choosing to buy a locked phone. In your scenario, the 2020 iPhone SE was available from many many sources, as I said.
        If you want a phone that's unlocked, buy it.

        • You donâ(TM)t seem to understand the only reason the unlock today is because the government mandated it.

          Carriers want your phone locked so you wonâ(TM)t break contract and so itâ(TM)s more hassle for you to switch carriers even when your contract is up. Thereâ(TM)s also a nice bonus that defaulting to locked ends up reducing the second hand supply because a lot of people wonâ(TM)t go through the hassle of getting their phone unlocked.

          Normal contract law and bill collection already c

    • There's no need for the law to get involved here. You can buy cell phones from many many sources.

      And they're private transactions, right? We don't need no government involvement.

      Did you know that it's a federal crime to lie to an insurance company, but no crime if the insurance company lies to you? Did you know that it was a federal crime to make a false statement on an application for credit, but a credit bureau commits no crime if they make false statements to you? There are lot more like this, btw.

      Eve

      • The examples you give are a problem. Clearly the law is skewed in favor of business.
        But what does that have to do with unlocked phones? If you want an unlocked phone, buy one. There's no law against it.

    • This prohibition is being implemented to help the majority exercise their individual freedom to cleanly exit a contract based upon on the original terms it was sold to them under. In the past, this was less of an issue because planned obsolescence meant that phones would often be unsupported/obsolete by the end of the contractual term anyway. This is no longer the case with modern smartphones, with Apple providing 5+ years of support and Google now offering a minimum of 3 years under Project Treble (which

  • Canada (Score:5, Interesting)

    by MeanE ( 469971 ) on Friday November 20, 2020 @08:40PM (#60749054) Homepage
    We have had mandatory unlocked phones here in Canada for a few years now and it's more convenient than you might think. Maybe people sell or give away their old phones and it's rare now to worry that the phone may be locked. You would frequently run into issues where you had to have the original owner go back to try and unlock the phone...and god help you if they were not with that carrier any longer...then you were SOL. If you were lucky it might be an android phone that you could buy an unlock code from some sketchy site online or eBay.
    • Arrrgh - Unlocked is NOT what you think. Many of these supermarket blowout end of model sales NEVER WILL come with firmware or OS updates. That is because the pre-loaded carrier branding and apps might be got rid of. So a secret deal is inked never to upgrade. Secondly the Google Factory Reset (FRP) is expensive to bypass, because it also (now) locks out phone USB connection by design, hampering a true as you originally bought it firmware refresh. Moreover as four or so third party phone tool people offer s

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mark-t ( 151149 )
        Bearing in mind that the parent was rather explicitly referring to Canada, where have you heard that an unlocked device in Canada doesn't mean what you'd think?

      • Yes, it is what they thought. It's a problem when you think a phone is carrier unlocked and it isn't, unless you happen to use the same carrier it's locked to.

  • Good.

  • This was the same clown that was against Net Neutrality. "Companies should have the freedom to decide what content they wish to promote or carry." Sadly I was the only person to notice the irony when facebook and twitter decided to fact check the insane ramblings of right wing terrorists much to the chargin of Republicans.

  • I know someone from the US uses Verizon as her Carrier, and I bought them a Dual CDMA and GSM Unlocked Phone from a Best Buy Future Shop.It was a Moto E4 Plus. It was around $200, in 2017. Served this person well. Come to find out, it started to fail in 2017. I had the Phone "Insured" by Geek Squad that if

    What did she do? She went to Verizon and they bilker fer for a new, Sim-Locked Phone. She forgot entirely that we got the Phone from Best Buy, and now, she is back in a Contract with Verizon with a Sim-Loc

  • 20+ years behind (Score:4, Insightful)

    by khchung ( 462899 ) on Friday November 20, 2020 @10:47PM (#60749450) Journal

    Quite a few countries had banned carrier-locked phones since *before* 2000.

    Nice to see the US finally caught up to this century 20+ years later.

    Do the US have number portability yet? Or are you still forced to change your mobile number when moving between carriers?

    • I'm in the US and it's been well over 10 years since I lacked bought a carrier locked phone. It's pretty simple to buy an unlocked phone, and in the long run you save (a tiny amount of) money compared to contracts that include a phone. They're widely available and typical for pay-as-you-go service, but all carriers have a bring your own phone program, even if it's not aggressively advertised.

      Do the US have number portability yet? Or are you still forced to change your mobile number when moving between carriers?

      Yes, that's been possible for mobile numbers for around 17 years [wikipedia.org]. There are weird limitations like you used to not be

    • Or are you still forced to change your mobile number when moving between carriers?

      Well, yeah, I mean ... if you don't make with the head.

    • We do have number portability in the US, but it can be messy. Depending on which carriers are involved and when you make your request to port, it might get done within minutes, or it might take a week. I change carrier-assigned numbers often because I buy prepaid service on whichever MVNO currently has the best deal, so I just use Google Voice for all my calling and texting and never have to worry about porting. The only bad side effect is I have two numbers that ring my phone, so I get twice the robo spam.
  • The phone companies told us that bricking phones when they're reported stolen was the best way to halt cell phone theft. Even though it meant we had to buy a new phone even if the old one was recovered, or turned out to have been misplaced instead of stolen.

    Well, if they sell a phone on an installment plan and the customer stops making payments, then the phone is just stolen. Brick it just like they tell us is best if our phone is stolen, and they can eat the cost of the stolen phone and buy a new one l
  • But instead of Dragons, phones that will bond with anyone.

  • And just pass a god damned law. Why is it always some bureaucratic rule instead of just having legislative bodes do there job. You elect these jackasses. Get a bill passed into law.

    • And just pass a god damned law. Why is it always some bureaucratic rule instead of just having legislative bodes do there job. You elect these jackasses. Get a bill passed into law.

      Somebody's drunk uncle has spoken!

    • Because the senators from rural states with poor cell service insist on cockblocking a law that would benefit people in other states (who don't benefit them) instead of corporations in other states (who donate to their reelection funds.)M/p>

  • Verizon won't activate a phone that wasn't purchased from THEM by YOU. My dad had a poorly functioning phone and I got him a replacement only to find out (from every rep I talked to) that they WON'T activate it.

    Each rep said you can't activate a locked phone; can't use a phone from another carrier, etc. When it came to them finding it it was an unlocked phone from VZW, they just refused to activate it. Retentions didn't even care, wanting him to buy a "discounted" phone @ $300.

    • I bought an "unlocked" phone on eBay, and Verizon happily activated it. (Calif, USA).

      It's worth noting that this was done in-store, and most of the Verizon reps were morons, and only one person in the store actually knew how to do it.

      (However, it actually was and is locked to VZW.)

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