White House petition to unlock all phones.

[Puzzlegal]

I'm fighting with Sprint right now to get my Moto X unlocked for international use. They have a company policiy that they will only unlock one device per user per year. They already unlocked a device for me. Too bad, it was flaky and I got it replaced under warrantee, and they don't have data that Moto replaced it, as far as they know, I sold the old one and bought a new one.

It's a stupid and customer-unfriendly policy on their part. I may be able to convince them it really, honest-to-gosh, was replaced by Moto. If I do, I'll probably forgive them for the PITA. If not, I may just break my contract and make them take me to small claims court or something, since they didn't provide the services promised. (I specifically checked that the phone could be unlocked prior to purchasing it.) In either case, I have yet another reason to shop around for a different carrier next time. Alas, I don't really love any of the carriers, but it seems like there is more choice in the market than there used to me.

 

[danewphoneguy]

This is going the hurt the poor people. You take away the lock, good bye subsidized phones. Who do you think has the greater interest in subsidized phones? The carrier? No. The customer? A little hotter....The phone manufacture? Yep.... The the number of iphones sales would not be where they are with out subsidized programs. A carrier is not going to hand a person a $700 dollar phone for $200 with out some leverage, with out that leverage its too big of a gamble. With out two year service agreements, iphones will be for the rich and trendy instead of for the masses.


Food for thought: You can not unlock a new iphone with out modifying the devices software/firmware. Who owns the firmware, software? The carrier has no authority over the software/firmware on a device nor do they do anything to change the stock iOS and if they would, they would be violating Apples TOU. To those who unlocked for international travel using a carrier, please tell everyone what program you did it with.....and who owns it. (hint: its also a fruit)

The big bad wolf is not the carrier.

 

[Puzzlegal]

It won't hurt poor people. They would be able to buy cheaper phones without paying for a contract that is inflated in price to subsidize an expensive phone. In fact, they can already do this on several minor carriers and the "budget" arm of major carriers. They would just be able to buy the generally better service levels provided by a major carrier without paying th subsidy.

You are right that it would hurt the manufacterers of expensive phones.

I think it would also hurt the major carriers, as they would have to pay more for customer retention. Basically, it would make the playing field more competative for them. But it would hurt Apple more.

 

[danewphoneguy]

How does no longer subsidizing phones make it more expensive to retain a customer? The truth is subsidies hurt more the smaller your customer base due to negotiations with manafactures. AT&T can get a better price for iphones than tmobile due to the scale of their customer base. Poor people can no longer afford Iphones. I'm not sure how you say poor people are not hurt when a subsidized option is removed....with nothing gained. They can already buy a cheaper phone and cheaper contract.

 

[Bigballer]

This is going the hurt the poor people. You take away the lock, good bye subsidized phones. Who do you think has the greater interest in subsidized phones? The carrier? No. The customer? A little hotter....The phone manufacture? Yep.... The the number of iphones sales would not be where they are with out subsidized programs. A carrier is not going to hand a person a $700 dollar phone for $200 with out some leverage, with out that leverage its too big of a gamble. With out two year service agreements, iphones will be for the rich and trendy instead of for the masses.


Food for thought: You can not unlock a new iphone with out modifying the devices software/firmware. Who owns the firmware, software? The carrier has no authority over the software/firmware on a device nor do they do anything to change the stock iOS and if they would, they would be violating Apples TOU. To those who unlocked for international travel using a carrier, please tell everyone what program you did it with.....and who owns it. (hint: its also a fruit)

The big bad wolf is not the carrier.

Screw the carrier, screw the manufacturer, screw TOU.

Nexus. The idea of a carrier controlled software is outdated. Love the idea of bypassing the carrier with manufacturer updates.

Hands down, better customer experience when the carrier is bypassed with updates.

To me, it allows for true and a more competitive market (win for customers), if I don't like a carrier, I simply take my current phone and move on to a different carrier with the switch of a sim. "world" phones like the nexus are a much more enjoyable experience since it has all the radios embedded that one can dream of. Hopefully more and more manufacturers will follow through: Samsung, LG, Apple etc etc, or the FCC should impose some sort of amendment that they should have to similar to how the European countries use the same sim for the all their carriers.

Absolutely no reason why Samsung, LG, HTC, Apple etc. should have to release 4 different models of the same phone for different radio bands for each carrier.

 

[danewphoneguy]

I will respond more when at my computer but hit on a few things. ..LG make the nexus the carrier does not control the os but needs to be involved with firmware I.e. drivers so the device can be tuned to the network. There is no stopping a consumer from buying an unlocked phone....the problem is they can not afford it with out help.