Govt cares about the Corporation. they do not care about people!. what is new?
I disagree.
Politics out of this forum?
I could, for example, presume you to be a tea party zealot, but I could be wrong...
Govt cares about the Corporation. they do not care about people!. what is new?
On top of that we get to keep our phone number even at the new provider, I've had mine for about 15 years with a number of phone and 2 providers.
The thing is that the contract and phone locking are two separate things. I think it's completely reasonable for companies to offer subsidized phones in exchange for a contract which binds you to 2 years of service or a large early termination fee. However, I don't think they should be allowed to lock the phones to a particular carrier and legally prevent users from unlocking their phones.
I don't get why need it to be illegal. They could just make the contract exit so expensive that it isn't worth it. You gradually pay off the phone and if you exit in the first few month you pay extra or hand the hardware back.
It is done already they don't need to criminalize anything. In any case I doubt the ban would deter anyone anyway. In some european contracts it is said to be illegal and nobody cares. If it is possible, people end up doing it.
At least up here when I checked into it phones were locked whether they were subsidized or not. Before I gave up getting one I talked to the carriers up here. They would sell me a phone outright and then go pay as you go without a subsidy, but the phone would still be locked to their service. The example I gave before was if I bought an unlocked phone from Apple and brought it in. They would let me go month to month but insisted on locking my own personal phone to their network. YMMV in other countries.
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ― Benjamin Franklin.
This was a quote that interested me when the Patriot act was passed. However it works with all aspects of pseudo freedom.
No. A locked phone is like buying a car from a dealer for 1/3 of the cost you expected, with a requirement that you buy their tire and gas. You got the upfront savings by buying the subsidized phone. The long term contract and locked up feature of the phone you bought is part of the deal.
The problem is that is basically a pretty bad deal for consumers. So Congress really shouldn't be making things easier for cell phone companies and they shouldn't be making a law making unlocking illegal. However, you have to acknowledge that at least initially when you get that cheap subsidized phone, that you owe something to cell phone company for that.
Well, there's the ideal, and then there's the imperfect reality. There's also the fact that people have differing notions as to what constitutes "freedom" i.e., when my freedom to do one thing interferes with another person's freedom to do something else, whose freedom takes priority? Is the UK not full of complexities and contradictions, too?
As for the issue at hand, I think I should have the freedom to unlock a phone I've paid for, as long as I pay for my two-year contract with the carrier.
I'll never understand America and its 'freedom'
I'll never understand America and its 'freedom'
Lol I totally agree that their business models suck. That's why I said petition the businesses to go and fix it. It's not the governments job to run other people's businesses. Let the market sort it out
I'll never understand America and its 'freedom'
Aw. So cute... does anyone believe these "petitions" are going anywhere aside from in the trash?
This is exactly why I don't have a smartphone and won't have one anytime soon. I spend half of my year in one country and the other half in another. Am I meant to buy two phones, and pay for two contracts simultaneously? Something is seriously wrong with how this works.
If you have to force people to use your carrier by making it illegal to use other carriers, you are clearly a bad carrier to begin with.
If is petition gets approved, cell phone price will surge even with 2-year contract.
Aw. So cute... does anyone believe these "petitions" are going anywhere aside from in the trash?
I'll never understand America and its 'freedom'
Seriously it's just a phone. Doesn't the US government have better things to worry about?
If is petition gets approved, cell phone price will surge even with 2-year contract.
Wow, I'm really glad I'm not American otherwise I fear I would've been taught this philosophy at school and started to actually believe that its a moral or good way to live as a society
Seriously it's just two guys wanting the government to recognize their marriage. Doesn't the government have better things to worry about? Like poverty, world hunger, genocides, etc.
So many libertarians on MR... that explains a lot actually
Who cares honestly, no one is going to pay attention to the law regardless.
If you've paid it off, it's yours. How is it that a telecom company can tell you what network you can use YOUR device with?