Cell Phone Users Allowed To Break Software Locks

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061123/ap_on_hi_te/digital_copyright">http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061123/ap_on_hi_te/digital_copyright</a><br /><br /><i>"Cell phone owners will be allowed to break software locks on their handsets in order to use them with competing carriers under new copyright rules announced Wednesday...The new rules will take effect Monday and expire in three years. In granting the exemption for cell phone users, the Copyright Office determined that consumers aren't able to enjoy full legal use of their handsets because of software locks that wireless providers have been placing to control access to phones' underlying programs. Providers of prepaid phone services, in particular, have been trying to stop entrepreneurs from buying subsidized handsets to resell at a profit. But even customers of regular plans generally can't bring their phones to another carrier, even after their contracts run out."</i><br /><br />This seems to be talking about phones that are SIM-locked so that only a SIM from the carrier you purchased the phone from will work. In the case of GSM phone users, this means you could stick any SIM in the phone and it would work on that carrier's service, similar to buying an unlocked phone in the first place. CDMA users won't be so lucky, at least in the US. I have seen no evidence that Sprint or Verizon would be willing to activate a phone on their network that didn't come from one of their stores. Additionally, this says nothing of the charge that a carrier like Cingular or T-Mobile would charge to give you the unlock code, only that they will have to provide it.

[WyattEarp]

Carriers haven't charged anything yet to my knowledge and shouldn't start either. Hopefully carriers won't use this as a way to make more money off customers. all you have to do now is request the unlock code and they will give it to you for free as long as you are already a customer.

[virain]

Well, at least some hope, as US carriers become more and more proprietary. With development of 3G, GSM idea of using same phone and a number all over the world become more and more illusive. With Cingular offering HSDPA/UMTS on 850/1900 bands and T-Mobile buying out almost all of 2100/1700, it would be more difficult to buy a handset you want to use, even from third party, unlocked. So there is some hope that US GSM will not become as proprietary customer rip off as let's say Verizon wireless.

[yada88]

I hope this is good news, but I'm not quite sure. All the ruling seems to say is that if you break the lock, you're not doing anything illegal. I didn't see anything that said that they would have to unlock a phone, just that you can't get in trouble if you figure out how to do it. I have a Samsung (Verizon) i830 that is sim locked to Vodaphone (GSM and CDMA phone). Verizon has refused to unlock it, and I will be spending 5 months in Europe. If I can get it unlocked it will save me from buying a new phone when I already have a brand new GSM device. I hope this goes like people are assuming.

[mbranscum]

... this says nothing of the charge that a carrier like Cingular or T-Mobile would charge to give you the unlock code, only that they will have to provide it.

Cingular will freely give you an unlock code on a phone now if you've been a customer for a short time and you're in good standing as far as your bill is concerned. I have had several phones unlocked by them simply upon requesting the code.

[JesterMania]

Hang on...can all GSM phones be unlocked simply with an unlock code? I read somewhere that some phones required special equipment to be unlocked. Does anyone know if this is true and if so, will carriers be doing it for us?

[mbranscum]

Hang on...can all GSM phones be unlocked simply with an unlock code? I read somewhere that some phones required special equipment to be unlocked. Does anyone know if this is true and if so, will carriers be doing it for us?

If you have the right code, it can be unlocked.

[lanwarrior]

Not with the new Nokia phones, such as the N-Series (N91, N93, etc.).

[tsapiano]

Additionally, this says nothing of the charge that a carrier like Cingular or T-Mobile would charge to give you the unlock code, only that they will have to provide it.

This really doesn't provide any direct changes as far as the carriers are concerned, it simply allows hackers to find ways to work around the locks themselves. The DMCA normally makes it illegal for people to break technological protection mechanisms in the US - this ruling simply means that the DMCA doesn't apply to this specific situation.

As such, end users are free to find ways to circumvent the locking functionality. This doesn't mean that the carriers have to provide them with any information/assistance, it simply means that they can't go after them if they figure out a way to do so ;) The DMCA is intended to protect copyrighted property, and the LoC simply ruled that cell phone locking doesn't really fit within that intention so it shouldn't be protected by it.

[Janak Parekh]

Well, at least some hope, as US carriers become more and more proprietary.
This is not quite an accurate statement. It's more accurate to say that the world is fragmenting as we use more radio frequencies. For example, Telstra in Australia just launched GSM 850-based HSDPA service. Then there's the whole Japanese and Korean markets, which use their own technologies. As the 2100 band gets saturated in Europe, you'll presumably see adoption of other bands there. Then there's the future possibility of the 700MHz bandwidth being freed in the US when analog TVs are retired in the next decade.

This does have major implications for how phones are sold across the world, unfortunately. The only long-term solution, in my opinion, will be software radios. Let's see what the manufacturers do.

--janak

[WyattEarp]

This is not quite an accurate statement. It's more accurate to say that the world is fragmenting as we use more radio frequencies. For example, Telstra in Australia just launched GSM 850-based HSDPA service. Then there's the whole Japanese and Korean markets, which use their own technologies. As the 2100 band gets saturated in Europe, you'll presumably see adoption of other bands there. Then there's the future possibility of the 700MHz bandwidth being freed in the US when analog TVs are retired in the next decade.

This does have major implications for how phones are sold across the world, unfortunately. The only long-term solution, in my opinion, will be software radios. Let's see what the manufacturers do.

--janak

Much agreed on how fragmented everything is becoming. What I don't see is analog TV being retired even in the next decade. The price point for HD TVs is still to high for most people along with HD service on top of that.

[servoisgod]

Maybe I'm reading a different article? This is talking about software locks...not SIM locks which is what you would take from one phone to the other.

Aaron