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FCC proposes ending cellphone carrier locks after 60 days (www.theregister.com)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

118 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Long-term carrier lock-in could soon be a thing of the past in America after the FCC proposed requiring telcos to unlock cellphones from their networks 60 days after activation.

FCC boss Jessica Rosenworcel put out that proposal on Thursday, saying it would encourage competition between carriers. If subscribers could simply walk off to another telco with their handsets after two months of use, networks would have to do a lot more competing, the FCC reasons.

"When you buy a phone, you should have the freedom to decide when to change service to the carrier you want and not have the device you own stuck by practices that prevent you from making that choice," Rosenworcel said.

Carrier-locked devices contain software mechanisms that prevent them from being used on other providers' networks. The practice has long been criticized for being anti-consumer.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (2 children)

okay but you end up paying more - if it was just normal data plan and cost of phone it would be even, but there's also something paid to middleman that provides something that is effectively credit and extortion services like simlock and some legal thingies, it might have smaller downpayment but it's not this, see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_theory

this is on top of various security and privacy implications of using a phone which you can't legally reflash

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

In Denmark you get two options, you can buy an unlocked phone with cash. Or purchase a subscription with it, and the provider gives you some incentive for it. The subscription is locked for 6 months which is the max by law.

If I buy a phone with the subscription, the discount means you would usually pay 80% of the phones value.

That locks you to a subscription for 6 months that is usually more expensive than the other offers out there, but the difference doesn't make up for the reduced price of the phone over the 6 month period.

So you are actually saving money, as long as you remember to switch to a cheaper subscription after the 6 months pass. The telecom of course hopes you don't, and that's their incentive for taking a hit on profit in the short term. It buys them marketshare.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Boots theory doesn't really apply because it is the exact same phone/hardware. Plus most people don't really care about reflashing their phone.

As for the privacy stuff I don't really know much about it in the context of locked phones so I'll take your word for it.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago

I think it's more of a corollary that phone companies can incentivize people to buy more than they need. I live in Canada, where carrier locks have been outlawed for a decade, so we don't typically get $100s off the phone, but they do often give interest free financing. This pushes people to get a brand new, top-of-the-line Galaxy or iPhone, when all they do is simple stuff that any basic smartphone could do. They just get used to paying "only an extra $50/mo" so once that phone is paid off, they finance a brand new, top-of-the-line smartphone.