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Chile Forbids Carriers From Selling Network-Locked Phones

Posted by timothy on from the as-regulations-go-not-a-bad-idea dept.

An anonymous reader writes "As from today, network operators in Chile are no longer allowed to sell carrier-locked phones, and must unlock free of charge all devices already sold to costumers through a simple form on their respective websites. The new regulation came into effect in preparations for the rollout of Mobile Number Portability, set to begin on January 16th. This is one among other restrictions that forbid carriers to lock in the customers through 'abusive clauses' in their contracts, one of which was through selling locked devices. Now if a customer wishes to change carriers he/she needs only to have the bills up to date and the process of porting the number should only take 24 hours."

5 of 291 comments (clear)

  1. An outbreak of common sense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I applaud it.

    1. Re:An outbreak of common sense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You might be able to do this in the U.S, but first you would have to unlock all the paid-for federal politicians.

      Based on the chances of that happening, I guess not.

    2. Re:An outbreak of common sense by sjames · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yes. I absolutely applaud it, and so should anyone who wants a healthy market.

      As near as I can tell, the claim is that any kind of regulation, including forbidding businesses to mug people in the park to cover shortfalls is claimed to "discourage investment".

      Sometimes the public interest calls for less muggings even at the cost of less investment.

    3. Re:An outbreak of common sense by Grishnakh · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You can't do something like this in the US. All the teabaggers and their Republican allies will say it's Communism and that government regulation is wrong. The Democrats will say a few weasel words that appear to support this, but then will either not bother to do anything at all, or will make a lame attempt at passing a law, but when a few Republicans object they'll change the law so that it looks like it's supporting this at first glance, but in reality is actually making things worse and giving giant advantages to the incumbent carriers, while also throwing in a bunch of other unrelated stuff that Republicans want. When people complain, the Dems will say they were "forced" to "compromise".

  2. Re:What about subsidized phones by tgeek · · Score: 5, Insightful

    IMHO, subsidized phones ought to go away. Hiding the true price of the phones behind carrier subsidies frees the phone manufacturers from having to price their phones openly and competitively.

    Imagine if there were no subsidized phones. Would we still have iPhones, Samsung Galaxies, HTC whatchamacallits and whatever else? I think so. Would they cost $500 or more? I doubt it - I think market competition would drive the prices down. Plus we might actually have some reasonably priced contract terms for service.

    Instead we have manufacturers who set whatever exorbitant price they like and conspire with the carriers to hide that price into locked-in contracts. PT Barnum, wherever he is, must be smiling!