unlocked phones – Techdirt (original) (raw)

T-Mobile Leans On Recent Supreme Court Chevron Ruling To Insist The FCC Can’t Require All Phones Be Unlocked

from the this-is-why-we-can't-have-nice-things dept

Last July the FCC announced it was moving forward with plans that should make unlocking your mobile phone easier than ever. According to the FCC announcement, the agency, with broad and bipartisan public support, has been working on new rules requiring that wireless carriers unlock customers’ mobile phones within 60 days of activation.

Wireless carriers, trying to monopolize consumer hardware and lock everybody into hardware and software walled gardens, historically had a brutal and draconian view of device unlocking. If you recall, you not only used to not be able to switch wireless phones between carriers, but companies routinely forced you to use their own, substandard mapping or GPS apps.

At various times unlocking your phone was also deemed downright illegal under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). We’ve come a long way (with wireless carriers dragged kicking and screaming most of the way), and very often it’s now possible to unlock your device and change carriers if your phone is paid off and you’re no longer under contract.

But the FCC correctly observed that the current guidelines surrounding unlocking are a mishmash of voluntary industry standards and inconsistent requirements — usually affixed to merger conditions or the use of certain spectrum. The agency’s new proposed rules should create some uniformity, and will even require that devices be unlocked if a user is under a wireless contract.

Unsurprisingly, wireless giants like AT&T and T-Mobile aren’t enthused. Both have been filing whiney missives with the FCC, claiming that clear unlocking rules will somehow prevent them from providing incredible value to U.S. consumers. T-Mobile has been going so far as to claim the rules would stop them from being able to offer cellphones on payment plans (which makes no coherent sense).

T-Mobile, a pale echo of the disruptive “uncarrier” it used to be before the Sprint merger, even went so far as to hint that the FCC might not have the authority to do any of this in the wake of the Supreme Court’s dangerous and corrupt Chevron ruling:

“[T]he Commission fails to point to specific statutory authorization for an unlocking mandate, and would have profound economic consequences, thus raising a ‘major question’ that would require clear statutory authority from Congress,” T-Mobile vice president of government affairs Clint Odom told Democratic commissioner Geoffrey Starks last week.”

Should the FCC proceed, T-Mobile hints the FCC will face legal action. That’s quite a tone change from a company that used to be viewed as a disruptive, consumer-centric player in the wireless space.

As [noted previously](http://“[T]he Commission fails to point to specific statutory authorization for an unlocking mandate, and would have profound economic consequences, thus raising a ‘major question’ that would require clear statutory authority from Congress,” T-Mobile vice president of government affairs Clint Odom told Democratic commissioner Geoffrey Starks last week.), corporations, well aware that they have a corrupt Congress in their back pocket, recently pushed the Supreme Court to dismantle what’s left of regulatory independence, throwing most consumer protection and regulatory autotomy into [legal chaos](http://“[T]he Commission fails to point to specific statutory authorization for an unlocking mandate, and would have profound economic consequences, thus raising a ‘major question’ that would require clear statutory authority from Congress,” T-Mobile vice president of government affairs Clint Odom told Democratic commissioner Geoffrey Starks last week.). It’s framed by corporate power earlobe nibblers as some noble streamlining of rule-making authority, but it’s just rank corruption, designed to prevent regulators from being able to implement popular reforms.

In this case, you’ve got a really popular and fairly basic streamlining of rules preventing wireless companies from restricting consumer choice. And yet even here you have companies trying to claim that the FCC now, post Chevron, lacks the authority to do absolutely anything of note. Post Chevron, you’re going to see a lot of this, across every business sector that impacts every last aspect of your life. Popular reform efforts vetoed by a corporations and a corrupt court.

Some, like this, are going to be problematic annoyances impacting relatively minor reforms. Others, in instances like environmental or public safety reforms, will absolutely prove fatal. Yet it’s been hard to get journalists, the public, or even many policy folks to understand the full scope of what’s coming.

Filed Under: 5g, chevron, fcc, lobbying, phones, smartphones, supreme court, telecom, uncarrier, unlocked phones, unlocking, wireless
Companies: t-mobile

Verizon Begins Locking Down Its Phones Again, Purportedly To 'Stop Theft'

from the fool-me-once dept

Wed, Feb 14th 2018 10:40am - Karl Bode

If you’ve been around a while, you probably know that Verizon has an adversarial relationship with openness and competition. The company’s history is rife with attempts to stifle competing emerging technologies that challenged Verizon’s own business interests, from its early attempts to block GPS and tethering apps so users would have to subscribe to inferior and expensive Verizon services, to its attempts to block competing mobile payment services to force users (again) onto Verizon’s own, inferior products. And that’s before you get to Verizon’s attempts to kill net neutrality and keep the broadband industry uncompetitive.

In the earlier years, Verizon had a horrible tendency to lock down its devices to a crippling and comical degree. But with the rise of net neutrality, competition from carriers like T-Mobile, and open access conditions affixed to certain spectrum purchased by Verizon, the company slowly-but-surely loosened its iron grip on mobile devices. But let’s be clear: the company had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into the new, more open future we all currently enjoy, where (by and large) you can install whatever apps you like on your device, and attach most mainstream devices (with some caveats) to Verizon’s network.

That’s why more than a few eyebrows were raised after Verizon gave CNET the early exclusive news (apparently in the hopes that they’d frame it generously, which they did) that the company will soon be locking down its smartphones as part of a purported effort to “combat theft.” Carriers have been justly criticized (and sued) for doing too little to prevent theft, in part because they profit on both sides of the equation — both when a customer comes crying to Verizon to buy a new phone, and when the user with the stolen phone heads to Verizon to re-activate it on a new line.

On its surface, Verizon’s plan doesn’t seem to have much of an initial impact on traditional users, who’ll still get to have their phone unlocked after an unspecified amount of time. The only initial problems that could arise involve users who buy a phone, then head overseas to insert a local SIM to get more reasonably-priced service. Those users may have to contact Verizon before that phone will work, something that may or may not be a pain in the ass in real-world practice.

But it’s more the precedent of the move that has people familiar with Verizon’s handiwork on this front a little nervous. Especially given Verizon’s recent successes in not only killing net neutrality, but gutting most state and federal oversight of ISPs entirely (something many haven’t keyed into yet). For one, locking down its devices technically violates the “Carterfone” open access rules affixed to the 700MHz spectrum used in Verizon’s network. Verizon was quick to insist to CNET that this shift back toward locking down devices does not violate the “spirit of the agreement”:

“The move marks a broad reversal of its policy to offer all of its phones unlocked — part of a deal with the Federal Communications Commission requiring it to unlock phones as part of its acquisition of the “C block” of 700 megahertz spectrum, which powers its 4G LTE network. One section of the deal specifically prohibits Verizon from configuring handsets to prevent them from working on other networks.

Avi Greengart, an analyst at Global Data, said the policy change appears to contradict the existing rules.

Verizon, however, argues it’s still following the intent of the rule.

“This change does not impact the spirit of that agreement as it is designed to deter theft by those who engage in identity theft or other fraud,” said a spokeswoman for Verizon. “It is not inconsistent with our obligations under the C Block.”

Oh, ok then. The problem is that Verizon doesn’t have very much (read: any) credibility on this front, something other news outlets were notably more blunt about:

“Verizon has peddled CNET the story that this is about preventing handset theft and fraud. No facts or figures are provided to back up that assertion.

The simple fact is this: Verizon believes it can get away with SIM-locking its handsets again. This creates confusion for consumers. “Can I take my Verizon phone to another network?” Goes from being answered with a simple “Yes” to “Well, probably, but first you need to contact customer service, ask for us to do this, give us your phone’s serial number, wait a week, and make sure this software update comes through.”

Again, Verizon’s pretty damn ambiguous about the hard specifics of this new plan, only stating the handset lock down will expand over time. Verizon (like many large telecom operators) has a long, proud history of hiding anti-competitive behavior behind faux-technical jargon and a breathless concern over the safety and security of the network. So locking down phones “for security reasons” is great cover for what could be ballooning efforts to make it harder for wireless consumers to switch to competitors. After all, who’s going to stop them, net neutrality opponent, former Verizon employee, and current FCC boss Ajit Pai?

Filed Under: fcc, locked phones, theft, unlocked phones
Companies: verizon