Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Canadian Android Carrier Forcing Firmware Update

Posted by kdawson on from the monopoly-rents dept.

Wolfier writes "For wireless carrier Rogers in Canada, it seems that 'Customer Safety' only becomes a concern after months of neglect. Rogers is the only GSM carrier in Canada and so the only choice for Android users. Months ago, a customer called Rogers to report a firmware bug that was preventing users from making 911 calls under certain circumstances, and informed the carrier that Google had fixed the bug (recording of that call). But Rogers is only doing something about it now — namely, cutting data access of paying customers until they accept a mandatory firmware upgrade that not only fixes the 911 problem, but also contains 'extra' features that prevent users from ever gaining root access to their phones — even non-subsidized ones. And some phones are also getting bricked by this 'official' update. The moral: we really need to open up the competition here up North."

4 of 238 comments (clear)

  1. Word #5 by michaelmalak · · Score: 5, Funny

    It wasn't until the fifth word that I realized the U.S. wasn't under attack.

    1. Re:Word #5 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      "Oh shit, the hoser knows about our android carriers."
      "CSIS, Deploy the beavers."

      CSIS: 'Beavers, Take off eh!'

  2. Re:Rogers is terrible by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I callled them, said I had installed the update. They asked me to verify the build number, which I read back to the guy from the screenshot in the update documentation, and they turned my data back on. The hardest part was the time spent on hold.

  3. Re:GSM Providers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    In the West? You mean like Hamilton?