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blackburn

macrumors 6502a
Feb 16, 2010
974
0
Where Judas lost it's boots.
They cant even properly track a stolen phone. How the hell are they going to track unlocked ones?

Btw: I think it's illegal to unlock mobile phones in Portugal, but most shops do it, they just label it as an software upgrade.
 

nutmac

macrumors 603
Mar 30, 2004
6,044
7,288
If anything, the gov't should mandate carriers and/or phone makers to unlock to phone after 90 day period.
 

avanpelt

macrumors 68030
Jun 2, 2010
2,956
3,877
If you cant afford to buy unsubsidized, just buy a Verizon iPhone 5 and you get the best of all worlds: unlocked out of the box, Verizon LTE, and you can put in a prepaid AT&T SIM to get AT&T's HSPA+ anywhere Verizon doesn't currently have LTE.
 

kmoreau48

macrumors regular
Nov 3, 2012
130
65
Here is how it should work. The customers have 2 choices.
1. buy the phone full price, unlocked and have no problem.

2. buy the phone with a discount but have to sign a contract (2 or 3 years depending on where he lives)

2 a) Wait untils the contract is up, then the customer owns the phone and can do whatever he wants with it

2 b) Break the contract before it ends but the customers has to pay for the remaining fee to own the phone, then he owns the phone and can do whatever he wants with it.

The moral is that if the customer owns his phone and paid the full price, he should not be locked with only one carrier.
 

lobster68w

macrumors newbie
Oct 12, 2011
23
0
I think this quote from Ayn Rand is appropriate.

"There's no way to rule innocent men.
The only power government has is the power to crack down on criminals.
Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them.
One declares so many things to be a crime
that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws."



Come get me feds! :rolleyes:
 

Bheleu

macrumors 6502
Nov 16, 2010
349
1
Hold up, THIS could be a GOOD thing!

This means you can pay your contract, have your phone unlocked by the carrier. The only thing this prevents is someone stealing/finding your phone, wiping it, unlocking it, and selling it on eBay/CL. This allows carriers to track/create lists of authorized iPhone's. When one is found that is not authorized, that buyer, seller, user can serve time - or turn over the one who sold it to them until they locate the one who unlocked it - ie. like gun laws. If you sell a gun to someone who uses it in a crime, you are just as guilty if you failed to do a background check. Buyer has to verify it is legitimately unlocked (not a stolen device).

This may sound like a bad thing, but it might be a VERY good thing in the end.
 

Taz Mangus

macrumors 604
Mar 10, 2011
7,815
3,504
This means you can pay your contract, have your phone unlocked by the carrier. The only thing this prevents is someone stealing/finding your phone, wiping it, unlocking it, and selling it on eBay/CL. This allows carriers to track/create lists of authorized iPhone's. When one is found that is not authorized, that buyer, seller, user can serve time.

This may sound like a bad thing, but it might be a VERY good thing in the end.

Good luck getting Sprint and Verizon to unlock the iPhone for use on CDMA and GSM/LTE on other carriers in the US.
 

Amazing Iceman

macrumors 603
Nov 8, 2008
5,244
3,987
Florida, U.S.A.
It must have taken massive lobbying to carriers to have accomplished this.

I should be allowed to unlock my phone to use it with another carrier if my carrier decides not to unlock my phone for no good reason, or if I want to travel overseas and avoid having to pay massive roaming rates. As long as I keep my plan, who cares if I unlock my phone?

----------

They cant even properly track a stolen phone. How the hell are they going to track unlocked ones?

Btw: I think it's illegal to unlock mobile phones in Portugal, but most shops do it, they just label it as an software upgrade.

The police could track it, if you were Steve Jobs and your phone got stolen. For regular people, they just won't do it.
 

mrsir2009

macrumors 604
Sep 17, 2009
7,505
156
Melbourne, Australia
I thought Apple was more interesting in selling their products and not what people do with them.

Once I have paid my money I will do whatever I like with the product, if I break it that's my problem.

Apple's got nothing to do with this - It affects ALL locked cellphones in the United States, iPhone or not, and is backed by the carriers. Of course Apple would rather this law didn't pass, because if people are able to do whatever they want with their iPhone, they're more likely to buy one.
 

Woodcrest64

macrumors 65816
Aug 14, 2006
1,303
515
There are going to be road blocks setup through out the states to check people's phones. This is the officer in charge :)

main-qimg-3c33227f1bc1945995e8eb0291dac8e4
 

lifeinhd

macrumors 65816
Mar 26, 2008
1,428
58
127.0.0.1
Oh, so now I have to sneak around to use my purchased device as I see fit. Brilliant.

How about regulating the telcos instead, so they're actually competitive and people won't need to unlock?
 

RotaryP7

macrumors 6502a
Aug 31, 2011
751
30
Miami, FL
At first I thought it was any phone. Now I read it's only CONTRACT phones. I'm actually OK with this.

I can still unlock phones which are not in a contract or bought full price. Which is what AT&T does either way. :rolleyes: But will eBay still offer unlocks? How would they know if it's a contract or out of contract? :confused:
 
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