| This should work... So if I cannot unlock my phone to bring to another carrier at the end of my contract, I assume the carrier I bought it from will buy the phone back from me at full retail?
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Jay: What the @#$% is the internet??? |
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| reply to skeechan
Re: The Supremes will rule in this case.... much more then just that. Think must go to dealer for any work on the car and you can't even do a DIY oil change.
And if they want to real dicks you must only buy the gas we say to. |
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 skeechanAi OtsukaholicPremium
join:2012-01-26
AA169|170
kudos:2 | reply to MaynardKrebs
The student wasn't "tuning" or otherwise changing books. Simply importing them and reselling them. If that can be prohibited, so can reselling an imported car. |
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 J E F FWhatta Ya Think About Dat?Premium
join:2004-04-01
Kitchener, ON
kudos:1
 ·Rogers Portable ..
·WIND Mobile
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| reply to cahiatt
Re: Librarian of Congress? said by cahiatt:said by Mike:I suggest killing someone instead and have good behavior if you have an urge to unlock a phone.
Maybe the people that write these laws? Two birds with one stone. Just sayin.... (Note to FBI: Not serious. Read into the sarcasm) Sure...IP address noted. Don't contact us, we'll contact you.
Jeff Williamson
Director, CIA; Ottawa Branch (Canada)
1-888-WE-CALL-U
www.cia.gov
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If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. - Albert Einstein |
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 n2jtx
join:2001-01-13
Glen Head, NY | Sprint iPhone I guess people with Sprint iPhones are SOL because Sprint will not unlock iPhones for domestic SIM usage. International yes but try and get an off contract phone unlocked so you can use a T-Mobile or AT&T SIM and you are screwed.
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I support the right to keep and arm bears. |
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bn1221
join:2009-04-29
Cortland, NY | reply to kd6cae
Re: I've got a technical question The 4s CDMA is locked to Vz/Sprint by the ESN. in theory they could let you use a Sprint phone on Vz..but they won't. The SIM in the Iphone 4s CDMA version IIRC is only used for overseas. |
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Chaldo
join:2008-03-18
West Bloomfield, MI | This isnt going to stop anything. You will still see people unlocking phones and using them. Do you think this is going to stop the huge demand in other countries for unlocked phones from US? That is a big multi million dollar business, people still will unlock their phones. |
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| reply to kd6cae
Re: I've got a technical question CDMA phones are not really technically locked like GSM phones can be. The way those carriers handle those phones is to simply refuse to activate a device not sold through them. So while your Sprint iphone could be up and running on verizon without any changes to the phone. Verizon refuses to allow any Sprint MEID's on their network. And vice versa.
If you wanted to take a sprint phone and move it to cricket or metro pcs, those carriers will often activate phones from other carriers on their network. I do believe though that while they used to now Apple has forced Cricket to agree not to activate iphones from other carriers as it as cutting down on iPhone users purchasing new iphones and digging into Apple's profit.
I understand that Sprint will not factory unlock your iphone's GSM portion to use on tmobile or ATT. This is probably to keep the phone in a state where it can only be used for sprint revenue. Given the insanely terrible iphone contract Sprint signed I cannot imagine them ever relenting on that.
Your best bet is probably to sell off the 4s, and get a better phone. You would probably come out money ahead swapping to a Verizon galaxy nexus, or pitch in 50-100 and you could probably get a verizon gs3 if that's the way you want to go. However, if you are going to get a phone off contract you may as well save money. So i would look at tmobiles monthly 4g, straight talk, and the like that will run you 30-50 dollars a month for talk/txt/web |
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kd6caeP2p Shouldn't Be A Crime
join:2001-08-27
Palmdale, CA | reply to kd6cae
Wow that's unfortunate. So you are saying, that even when my contract is up, I would not be able to use my same device on Verizon, or for that matter any network even GSM networks such as AT&T, even if I contacted sprint? That doesn't seem right to me, but I suppose it's a good reason to purchase a fully unlocked iPhone 5 then, if my current device is stuck on sprint here in the US. To be clear, I don't hate sprint, I just was hoping to have the option when my contract is up, to go to another domestic carrier if I choose with my same device. Guess that can't happen with sprint. Very silly in my book. |
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| reply to Lark3po
Re: yeah, okay It may be simple to avoid, I myself don't have to worry about this as much as I'm on a byod sim prepaid plan, I can just buy an unlocked device, but the truth is that many phones on ebay are used phones, many of which were carrier subsidized. and used carrier phones are normally cheaper than the full unlocked versions. This move could kill a substantial part of the second hand market.
This is about greed, carriers can make it harder to switch by refusing to unlock your phone, even if your contract is up or you've left and paid the etf, which in reality pays for the rest of your subsidized phone not the mention the boom for phone manufacturers to increase sales, as more phones become harder to resell.
With T-mobile's refarm and bring your own device promotion. I fully expect AT&T to start refusing to unlock phones, regardless of your contract being over. Verizon and Sprint may be better about it, as their phones aren't easily moved from one carrier to another. It's anticompetitive and anticonsumer, they shouldn't have the right to tell you what you can do with a device you own. |
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kd6caeP2p Shouldn't Be A Crime
join:2001-08-27
Palmdale, CA | reply to n2jtx
Re: Sprint iPhone This is the situation I was curious about. I wonder why sprint is unwilling to allow a full unlock of off contract phones for domestic use? Once my contract is up, why can't I decide which carrier I want to use my device with? So when my contract is up at the end of this year, my device will remain stuck on sprint's network, even though I may want to go prepaid or just have another carrier option to connect my device to in the U.S? And even though sprint and Verizon use CDMA, my sprint phone will never ever be able to connect to VZ? So much for getting more choices out of my device once my contract expires, unless of course I travel. It all seems rediculous, and I wonder what the point of that is. |
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| If I get caught, I fully plan on counter lawsuit under fair-use rules. |
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 dnoyeBFerrous Phallus
join:2000-10-09
Southfield, MI | reply to FBGuy
Re: yeah, okay Will this apply to second hand phones that originated from a carrier? Will this prevent carriers themselves from unlocking phones for their customers? |
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dnoyeBFerrous Phallus
join:2000-10-09
Southfield, MI Reviews:
·Comcast
| reply to elefante72
Re: Crazy laws which means the price I get for my directly purchased phones when I sell them on ebay will go up quite a bit!
Destroying the secondary market is the same thing Steam has done for video games. unless you make a steam account for each game.
Phone companies will probably be happy with this for a few years while it pushes up their sales. But in the long run its going to make people just stop buying phones from them.
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dnoyeB
"Then said I, Wisdom [is] better than strength: nevertheless the poor man's wisdom [is] despised, and his words are not heard. " Ecclesiastes 9:16
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 JakCrow
join:2001-12-06
Palo Alto, CA | reply to IowaCowboy
Re: Ownership of software and other works Unlocking a phone isn't about software ownership. It's about hardware. You own your phone, and it's provider lock has nothing to do with what software it's running. Your position means you couldn't mod your own computer if you were running windows or mac os, and we know that simply isn't true. Plus, this ridiculous restriction has nothing to do with jailbreaking a phone, which will still be legal, which IMO, makes the restriction on unlocking a phone just plain stupid and shows just how out of touch these people making such baseless and arbitrary rules really are. |
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JakCrow
join:2001-12-06
Palo Alto, CA | reply to elwoodblues
Re: Crazy laws I really can't see this surviving any kind of legal challenge, especially with jailbreaking still being allowed. I think they're undermining their own arbitrary law making with that. |
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JakCrow
join:2001-12-06
Palo Alto, CA | reply to skeechan
Re: The Supremes will rule in this case.... said by skeechan:The student wasn't "tuning" or otherwise changing books. Simply importing them and reselling them. If that can be prohibited, so can reselling an imported car.
Or an imported anything for that matter. |
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Reviews:
·Comcast Business..
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 ·AT&T Southeast
| reply to dnoyeB
Re: yeah, okay It seems that way after reading the pdf. They are trying to stop a practice of a company buying used phones which are out of contract and therefore can be unlocked and are later sold in other countries for full price.
Therefore they are now not required (by my understanding) to unlock that phone even after contract is up.
So in short consumers should now buy unlocked and not subsidized phones. If carriers don't want to activate your unlocked device because their firmware is not on the phone then they could also tell you to go screw yourself.
Which damages the used cellphone market and will also give carriers greater control of what devices are on the network and how they are used.
In the process though it gives us less options so they can feel safer. It's also a indirect benefit for handset makers and allows for the use of backdoors because it's "Their firmware". |
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| So let me get this straight If I choose to purchase let's say... a T-Mobile-branded phone from eBay. The seller on eBay states the phone can be activated without contract. The phone may or may not ship with original software from T-Mobile. I receive said phone and install a SIM from a T-Mobile MVNO like Simple Mobile and it works fine. I'm still breaking the law anyway?
Some of these phones are rooted and flashed with custom ROMs that work much better, but that's now illegal as of Sunday?
How can this be remotely enforceable anyway? They're now going to access everyone's phones OTA and take a peek at the software version and build? |
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| how does this affect CDMA ? i am wondering how this will affect phone flashing on CDMA carriers.
is it safe to assume that an SPC of '000000' is already considered unlocked?
changing the SPC would be illegal?
that would make flashing verizon postpaid phones to cricket or metropcs legal, but flashing sprint or verizon prepaid illegal.
or would writing a PRL of a different carrier be illegal?
or perhaps since setting data sometimes requires a bit of hacking on certain phone model talk and text is legal but data illegal?
i wonder if metro and cricket will just stop accepting flashed phone all together, although i imagine that would put most of the same mom & pop shops out of business since flashing is the one area they have an edge to compete against the corporate owned stores. |
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