Obama Asks FCC To Make Carriers Unlock All Mobile Devices

New submitter globaljustin writes "According to a Washington Post report: 'Several months after calling for legislation to unlock cellphones, the White House filed a petition (PDF) with the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday asking that all wireless carriers be required to unlock all mobile devices so that users can easily switch between carriers. ... the National Telecommunications and Information Administration said that allowing unlocked devices would increase competition and consumer choice, while also putting the burden of changing networks on companies rather than consumers.' This move should be met with universal acclaim from cell phone users, right?"

Comments

Re:Promised fulfilled

[sociocapitalist]

Now we can CHANGE carriers.

Maybe...

Presumably you're still locked into some contract that went along with getting that shiny new phone.

Re: Topology

[Anonymous Coward]

We have four major carriers. Two carriers are on CDMA and two are on GSM. The two GSM carriers use different frequency bands for 3G, which means you need a phone with a pentaband 3G radio to be able to freely switch between those two. LTE is even more complicated.

Basically, this would have been a great suggestion ten years ago, but now the carriers have used technical measures to make the whole "carrier locking" thing moot.

Re:Promised fulfilled

[bluefoxlucid]

Yes it's called a "Loan" and it's what happens when you buy a $600 toy with $50 and someone tells you they need $20 a month until they have $600 from you.

Re:Promised fulfilled

[Big Hairy Ian]

>> Yes it's called a "Loan" and it's what happens when you buy a $600 toy with $50 and someone tells you they need $20 a month until they have $900 from you.

There fixed that for you