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Monday November 27, 2006
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As a Thanksgiving present to American consumers, the US copyright office last week recommended that Americans be allowed to unlock their cell phones. This is so enticing, so exciting, and so confusing, that I thought I'd give a little rundown on what it actually does and doesn't mean.
Because cell phone carriers sell you phones at deep discounts, they want to prevent you from grabbing a discounted phone, cancelling your service and porting it over to another carrier. There are two ways they can do this. They can either lock the phone itself to work only with their carrier's SIM cards (Cingular and T-Mobile do this) or they can have a permission list of allowed phones on their network, and refuse to enable any phones they don't sell. (Verizon and Sprint do this.)
The copyright office ruling says it will be legal to disable phone-based SIM locks. What this means, most importantly, is that Cingular and T-Mobile users will be allowed to take their phones with them if they decide to switch between those two carriers. It will have no effect on Verizon or Sprint customers, because they use network-based permission lists.
More after the jump.
T-Mobile and Cingular already unlock phones for long-term customers who ask politely. The ruling, though, means that you'll also be able to legally go to third parties, whether on the Web or in a shopping mall, to get your phone unlocked, and not get any guff from T-Mobile or Cingular about it.
The ruling says nothing about "hacking" your phone to enable or change features. That's always been basically OK, though carriers don't generally repair or give tech support for phones you break through hacking.
And it says nothing about buying unlocked phones overseas or from distributors like dynamism.com. That's also always been OK, though you have to enter a few arcane settings to get full Internet access on your phone with Cingular or T-Mobile. (The settings are available on the Web.)
The ruling won't let you move Cingular/T-Mobile phones to Sprint/Verizon, or use Nextel phones on any other network. That's not a legal issue - the networks just use different, incompatible technology.
Another thing the ruling won't let you do is use a T-Mobile Sidekick on any carrier other than T-Mobile. That's because the Sidekick requires special servers that only T-Mobile has.
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November 28, 2006 5:54 PM
Thanks for that! I always wondered about that!
November 28, 2006 8:39 PM
do you know if there is a phone..perhaps a Blackberry model (GSM) that has GPS capability. I know that Sprint has one. I think Verizon sells a CDMA model. will T-Mobile have such a model anytime soon?
November 28, 2006 8:45 PM
That's great, since Sprint and Verizions use CDMA, can you have Sprint for the code to get into the setup so you can go to Verizions?????
November 29, 2006 1:15 AM
I pity you folks in the States. Unlocking phones is a routine and trivial operation here in the Philippines and most of Asia, and has been for years. The folks manning every little second hand cell phone kiosk can do it. Oh and by the way, you'll be happy to know that you pay more for your mobile phone service in the States than the average consumer in Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam....etc.
November 29, 2006 11:51 AM
HOLE are you bragging or something? Geez. Locking a phone is a great business move. I know for a consumer it makes things hard, but it also makes things fair. The phone company may be paying anywhere from $150 - $600 for a phone and giving it to you for .99. Dont you think you owe them the loyalty of sticking around seeing that they basically paid for your phone? All companies allow you to "test" their phones for the first 30 days of your contract, so if the service doesnt work, TRY ANOTHER A DIFFERENT COMPANY. Making a law that disallows subsidy locks will only drive the price of cell phones very high. Just like they are in Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam....etc.
November 29, 2006 12:48 PM
Well, if the average Vietnamese or Cambodian user earns $70US a month, it's pretty hard to charge them $39US monthly to use their phone...duh.
November 29, 2006 4:07 PM
Jim, sorry - Sprint and Verizon both forbid you to use any phone you don't buy from them. It's technically possible, and you could do it if you could find a customer service rep willing to break the rules and potentially get fired, but it's a big no-no in terms of company policy.
November 29, 2006 4:09 PM
They may say it costs $150-$600 for a phone. But, they're not giving it to you for $99. They're selling it to you at a profit. How much does it cost to make a portable 900mhz phone? It's basically an FM radio transciever with a channel selector chip. Kind of a CB radio - they cost $30 for two.
November 29, 2006 4:25 PM
The cell phone companies do NOT pay $100 to $600 for phones that they give you or sell you for $39.
They purchase SO MANY phones that they get them rediculously cheaply. FURTHER I believe that they are programed to break after about 18 months so that you will have to buy another. I have never had a phone last much beyond the life of the contract.
Belive me they are not making any sacrifices.
November 29, 2006 4:50 PM
Well, I don't know how you could program the obsolescence in. The plastic doesn't just break over the 18 months. But, these items are definitely made cheaply enough to make sure the companies don't lose money. This is business by large corporations. Not exactly a mom and pop thing.
November 29, 2006 7:09 PM
I do agree with jbeezz regarding the price that companies pay for the phone. And I do agree that loyal customers cover their phone price ten folds.
As far as the obsolescence, as a programmer I can tell you that anything can be programmed in the phone (not a physical damage though). But I doubt that any respectable phone manufacturer would do such a stupid (or not) thing. At least one of my Sony Ericsson phones work as new for about 6 years and counting. Though, I prefer to buy unlocked smart phones since they allow me to travel worldwide and use SIM card from any local provider without any ridiculous roaming charges.
November 29, 2006 11:15 PM
>>The phone company may be paying anywhere from $150 - $600 for a phone
The "retail price" of cell phones is a ridiculous joke. There's no way in heck that a cell phone, no matter how many fancy features it has, would ever sell on the open market for $600 let alone $150 WHOLESALE.
Cell phone companies publish astronomically high retail prices so they can justify locking customers in to two-year contracts in exchange for the "steep discount" they claim they're giving you.
November 30, 2006 12:01 AM
How about moving to the system used outside north america of buying the phone from one source and the services from the providers and NOT linking the two contractually. Some countries make it illegal to contractually link the two! See the home of Nokia where the saturation rate is extremely high at almost 99%!
They also charge the caller NOT the receiver for calls. This would reduce junk calls, etc.
You're just lucky to get this as it is not quite here in Canada. [Only one provider with GSM.]
November 30, 2006 2:01 AM
Yeah that was really enlightening. See things like that aren't brought to the public as important or at all.
Thanks again.
November 30, 2006 7:54 AM
I'm interested in this whole idea of cell phone retail prices being a conspiracy. You guys want to put your evidence where your mouths are? Help me investigate the issue here:
http://www.gearlog.com/2006/11/cell_phone_subsidies_conspirac.php
December 1, 2006 3:51 AM
In the us we pay more for everything from medicine to cable to internet the cellphones. In a way we pay for everyone else to have cheaper service.
December 3, 2006 10:13 AM
yo hole;dont pitty me or my homeland,my choices of anything will smoke yers in a rice burning sec.just because it costs me 20 bones [that takes me about 20 min. to earn]to get my devices unlocked you dont have to get yer pantys in a bunch and run a you'' poor americans trip''oh by the way how much have we loaned yer 3rd world principality in the last 20 years?,yer national heroes are basketball players that got cut from our cba teams ala billy ray bates.and our choices of women dont all look alike sucker.
December 5, 2006 2:12 PM
Nobody's pitying anyone. This is a discussion about what the actual cost of a cell-phone vs. what we're all charged. Take an aspirin and call back in the morning, luvmycountry.
The market price is certainly affected by how much the locals make. Would you pay $1000 for a cell-phone? I think the actual mechanical parts of the phone is in the tens of dallars. I'm an electrical engineer and have made lot's of similar equipment. The price is always what the market will bear - plus a little markup for profit and sales promotions.
December 6, 2006 4:11 AM
Now that cell phone unlocking is legal we are building a network of Local Unlocking Centers in every major USA and Canada city. If anyone is interested in being the exclusive unlocker for your city please let us know. Check out our site or give us a call.
http://www.unlocktotalk.com/Local.html
1-800-891-0625
May 28, 2007 4:32 AM
Reading the posts in this site is, to say simple, enlightening (no sarcasm). This legal issue over locking or unlocking cellphones sparks debate. Some believe it's all about favoring the consumers, some others think it's about favoring the purveyors. I believe that, somewhere in the middle, they all get fit. Any economy needs people that think like those that state out in this site that the consumer shall be favored, but it also needs entities like the cellphone companies, that offer a product for a profit. All I can conclude is that you Americans have to give this new ruling a good final use, but I won't be arrogant to think I know what shape it'll have. You're famous throughout the Globe for being bold, so go and test this ruling in the facts. And I hope a similar ruling comes out in Mexico; then I'll have a chance to test it and get a useful feedback at this site.
November 21, 2007 9:30 AM
Cell phones as a rule cost about 14 dollars to make. These new smart phones and the like probably dont fall into that catagory but your normal cell cost no more than 14 to 20 dollars to make