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I saw this article below that seems interesting and very related to our next cell phone choice. Huawei and ZTE appear to be the next wave of competition against major cell phone manufacturers. Do you guys think this is a real threat or just big business at work? I would not be surprised to replace my GS2 with one of these brands in a year.
Article starts below or read online here http://touch.latimes.com/#story/la-na-pn-chinese-firms-20121007/
House intelligence panel warns against two Chinese firms
WASHINGTON — The federal government should “view with suspicion” attempts by two Chinese telecommunications companies to expand in the U.S. market because of a strong risk that they would aid spying and cybertheft by China, a yearlong investigation by the House intelligence committee has concluded.
In a 52-page report accompanied by a classified annex, House investigators working for Democrats and Republicans said that Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp., two private companies with deep ties to the Chinese government, had failed to satisfy security concerns.
“Despite hours of interviews, extensive and repeated document requests, a review of open-source information, and an open hearing with witnesses from both companies, the committee remains unsatisfied with the level of cooperation and candor provided by each company,” the report says. “Neither company was willing to provide sufficient evidence to ameliorate the committee’s concerns.”
The report recommended that the U.S. government bar the two globally dominant firms from access to any sensitive U.S. networks and from acquiring U.S. assets. The companies make routers, switches and other parts of the worldwide telecommunications nerve system.
Huawei has hired a team of lobbyists in Washington, including several former congressional aides, as it seeks to sell products to U.S. telecom carriers and otherwise gain a toehold in the American market. ZTE officials have also expressed aspirations to do significant business in the United States. But large U.S. telecoms are not likely do business with the Chinese firms if U.S. officials warn against it.
House intelligence committee chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and ranking member C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.) appeared on CBS’ “60 Minutes” Sunday to discuss their inquiry.
“If I were an American company today … and you are looking at Huawei, I would find another vendor if you care about your intellectual property, if you care about your consumers’ privacy, and you care about the national security of the United States of America,” Rogers said on the broadcast.
With $32 billion in annual revenue, Huawei is the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker, while ZTE has $13.7 billion in revenue and is the fifth-largest. The firms specialize in technology that can be easily manipulated for electronic eavesdropping in ways that are extremely difficult to detect, the report says.
Huawei “exhibits a pattern of disregard for the intellectual property rights” of other companies, the report says, urging private companies “to consider the long-term security risks associated with doing business with either ZTE or Huawei for equipment or services.”
The report was tougher on Huawei than on ZTE. It charges that that “during the investigation, the committee received information from industry experts and current and former Huawei employees suggesting that Huawei, in particular, may be violating United States laws. These allegations describe a company that has not followed United States legal obligations or international standards of business behavior.”
The allegations, including bribery and corruption, will be referred to the Justice Department, the report says.
Aside from those unspecified allegations, however, the unclassified version of the report does not specifically link either company to wrongdoing or spying for China. U.S. intelligence officials say China has mounted a brazen state-sponsored campaign to steal the intellectual property of American and other Western companies, often through cyberattacks that siphon information out of poorly defended computer networks.
Although the U.S. engages in extensive electronic spying, it does not undertake economic espionage, U.S. officials insist. At the same time, they contend, China has a strategy of bypassing research and development by stealing it. China denies this.
The report focuses mainly on questions neither company answered to the committee’s satisfaction about ties to China, its government, and its defense and intelligence services.
Although Huawei is a private company, it receives significant support from state-owned Chinese banks that it refuses to detail, the report says. ZTE would not discuss its work for Chinese military and intelligence services, the report says.
At a September hearing before the intelligence committee, both companies denied that they would do anything improper on behalf of China.
“Huawei has not and will not jeopardize our global commercial success nor the integrity of our customers’ networks for any third party, government or otherwise,” Charles Ding, senior vice president of Huawei, told lawmakers.
i work for uscc.. we have a zte phone coming soon that has windows mobile 7.5.. other than that its specs are pretty mediocre and not better han the sgs2.. zte is one of the largest phone manufacturers in the world.. but pretty sure there playing the catch up game and releasing windows phones might not get them where they need to go lol
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I wouldn't be surprise if it's true. But then again, they can already be doing it to the other manufactures phone's that they assemble in china.
I agree that the phones I have seen by these manufacturers look pretty basic but their latest stuff like this looks nice http://www.huaweidevice.com/worldwi...nfoId=3442&directoryId=6001&treeId=3745&tab=0
Don't get me wrong I like my phone and Samsung products but when it comes time to buy I'm shopping around.
Not like our own government doesn't do this already to us. They're just mad they won't do it fir them.
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Could be true, the Chinese are pretty sneaky when it comes to espionage, both political and corporate. I'm sure they'd love to add some kind of spyware to a mobile device to gain access to a users sensitive data.
We are legion, for we are many.
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This is looking good... I never thought I'd see something so nice come from Huawei.
http://www.huaweidevice.com/worldwi...nfoId=3265&directoryId=6001&treeId=3745&tab=0
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Mattix724 said:
This is looking good... I never thought I'd see something so nice come from Huawei.
http://www.huaweidevice.com/worldwi...nfoId=3265&directoryId=6001&treeId=3745&tab=0
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Nice specs on paper, more than likely total sh!t IRL. Huaweis processors(which that has) are known to be way over hyped on paper and not live up to their claims. Plus its running a 64-bit system, where the hell are they gonna get a 64-bit compatible version of android? It would end up running a 32-bit OS on a 64-bit system which seems kind of pointless :thumbdown:
We are legion, for we are many.
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Is Windows phone 8 a 64bit OS? I don't know much about it.
*Post Updated 10/15 6:15 am*
Sources:
http://newsroom.sprint.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=2420
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-500395_162-57532184/softbank-reaches-$20b-deal-to-buy-sprint-nextel/
http://www.sfgate.com/business/bloo...Bets-on-Sprint-as-Softbank-Shares-3948748.php
CBS (emphasis mine):
Softbank Corp. has reached a deal to buy 70 percent of U.S. mobile carrier Sprint Nextel Corp. for $20.1 billion in the largest-ever foreign acquisition by a Japanese company.
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Sprint Announcement:
After closing, Sprint’s headquarters will continue to be in Overland Park, Kansas. New Sprint will have a 10-member board of directors, including at least three members of Sprint’s board of directors. Mr. Hesse will continue as CEO of New Sprint and as a board member.
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This will have an impact on how Sprint is run as soon as the deal closes and quite possibly before then as Hesse will start taking steps towards the close. For those of us on Sprint, this is a big deal and why I posted it for discussion before.
how is this a bombshell? just curious? it will help sprint expand there lte footprint
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They need to do something. Period. Obviously, when your revenue goes in to trying to secure a NASCAR contract instead of putting it into the network, something is wrong. Maybe this will be the start of something good. Just my 2¢.
---Jay--- Mobile Moderating from the Nexus™
elliwigy said:
how is this a bombshell? just curious? it will help sprint expand there lte footprint
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The third largest carrier being bought (66% and a controlling stake from what I have read) by a foreign investor, much less Japan's 3rd largest carrier is a bombshell. Think when Vodafone got a significant stake in Verizon.
And yes, this is actually good news for Sprint. Don't know what that means from my MVNO - KDDI is a competitor of Softbank in Japan.
jayharper08 said:
They need to do something. Period. Obviously, when your revenue goes in to trying to secure a NASCAR contract instead of putting it into the network, something is wrong. Maybe this will be the start of something good. Just my 2¢.
---Jay--- Mobile Moderating from the Nexus™
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Possibly the best thing that could happen is a shakeup of the board and Hesse either put on warning or replaced as CEO. Sprint can be profitable again but it will take many years to do so. Softbank has always had a tough fight in Japan and yet they're still around.
All in all I don't see this as a bad deal.
as long as i can still have my SERO acct i'll stay with them. if i lose it, then i'll have to drop them. i locked - so far - on unlimited data on verizon. sprint's coverage has been getting progressively worse around my area which is mostly rural.
With Google's investment in lg for there next nexus device and the specs on the lg optimus g coming to sprint I don't think I will be able to resist. So for me it's lg or bust
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cas8180 said:
With Google's investment in lg for there next nexus device and the specs on the lg optimus g coming to sprint I don't think I will be able to resist. So for me it's lg or bust
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I refuse to believe LG is making a nexus device, especially considering all these leaked images have "with Google" printed on the back and not just "Google"
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squshy 7 said:
I refuse to believe LG is making a nexus device, especially considering all these leaked images have "with Google" printed on the back and not just "Google"
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OK you can live in denial ; )
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was I right when I read it only will come with 8 and 16gb internal storage, no SD?! If that's true(and not just an early spec rumor that changes with the wind) that's a total deal breaker for me.
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Since when was this the talk about the next nexus thread?
Back to the subject at hand... I think at this point Sprint could use all the help they can get. Network Vision is taking too long to be rolled out.
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madsquabbles said:
as long as i can still have my SERO acct i'll stay with them. if i lose it, then i'll have to drop them. i locked - so far - on unlimited data on verizon. sprint's coverage has been getting progressively worse around my area which is mostly rural.
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my thoughts exactly
not sure how I feel about my telecommunications being owned by a foreign entity though
Amd4life said:
my thoughts exactly
not sure how I feel about my telecommunications being owned by a foreign entity though
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You'd be surprised how much foreign investment is done to our telecom companies... but I think this is the biggest stake that I can recall. We'll see how it goes, I'm willing to wait for now and see what happens.
garwynn said:
You'd be surprised how much foreign investment is done to our telecom companies... but I think this is the biggest stake that I can recall. We'll see how it goes, I'm willing to wait for now and see what happens.
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The current telecom industry is stagnated. ATT and VZ are satisfied with the status quo because all they're doing is raking in the money for its American and Foreign investors. They do not care about anything as long as the money keeps flowing and they will do the bare minimum to maintain or increase the money flow.
There's a huge thread on s4gru already discussing this but I'll repeat what I said there, here.
http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/2296-japans-softbank-in-talks-for-128-bln-sprint-stake/
The investment by an aggressive and well led asian corporation such as SoftBank can only be seen as a good thing. There is a huge difference in mentality between us "Americans" and westerners vs those in Asia.
Whereas most American / Western investors demand and want their investments to be maximized in the least amount of time, Asian corporations tend to look at what they can sacrifice now for the benefit of tomorrow.
SoftBank is a telecom corporation that went from 700K subscribers to over 2.7 million in a year by aggressively undercutting the other telecoms. They see how stagnated America telecoms are and they see it as a perfect opportunity to shake things up.They're investing in sprint via buying 75% (?) of Sprints stock because they see the future of american telecoms and see that out of them, Sprint is the one that has an actual plan for success. A plan that is painful for many of us temporarily but will ensure that Sprints network will be one of the better ones - if not the best for the future.
They agree with what Dan hesse has been doing and want to be part of it. They're looking at the future and not the present as most of us are and THAT is why Asian corporations have been able to undercut and outdo American and western corporations. They look 2 steps ahead of us. Whereas we look at the next quarters, the next year. They look at the next year, 5 years, 10 years.
This can only be a good thing for us.
lilotimz said:
The current telecom industry is stagnated. ATT and VZ are satisfied with the status quo because all they're doing is raking in the money for its American and Foreign investors. They do not care about anything as long as the money keeps flowing and they will do the bare minimum to maintain or increase the money flow.
There's a huge thread on s4gru already discussing this but I'll repeat what I said there, here.
http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/2296-japans-softbank-in-talks-for-128-bln-sprint-stake/
The investment by an aggressive and well led asian corporation such as SoftBank can only be seen as a good thing. There is a huge difference in mentality between us "Americans" and westerners vs those in Asia.
Whereas most American / Western investors demand and want their investments to be maximized in the least amount of time, Asian corporations tend to look at what they can sacrifice now for the benefit of tomorrow.
SoftBank is a telecom corporation that went from 700K subscribers to over 2.7 million in a year by aggressively undercutting the other telecoms. They see how stagnated America telecoms are and they see it as a perfect opportunity to shake things up.They're investing in sprint via buying 75% (?) of Sprints stock because they see the future of american telecoms and see that out of them, Sprint is the one that has an actual plan for success. A plan that is painful for many of us temporarily but will ensure that Sprints network will be one of the better ones - if not the best for the future.
They agree with what Dan hesse has been doing and want to be part of it. They're looking at the future and not the present as most of us are and THAT is why Asian corporations have been able to undercut and outdo American and western corporations. They look 2 steps ahead of us. Whereas we look at the next quarters, the next year. They look at the next year, 5 years, 10 years.
This can only be a good thing for us.
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Thanks for the S4GRU link. Will head over there sometime to read up - I often use that as my go-to source for NV.
Not an in depth article but mirrors the sentiment that it's good news. 19%, while modest to some, is a good sign.
http://money.cnn.com/2012/10/11/technology/mobile/sprint-softbank/index.html
I don't see this as much of a bombshell or big deal. It's how corporations run.
Off/on topic. Lil lady works for sprint and there is zero talk about this at her work. You'd think with 500 plus people, contractors included, they would be asking questions around the "water cooler".
But nothing.
I've been in "purchases". From Southwestern Bell to SBC to Att. Just nothing is odd to me.
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I doubt the worker ants have any clue what's going on.
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Mattix724 said:
I doubt the worker ants have any clue what's going on.
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You'd think if it was making headlines in the tech field, people would be talking.
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Guys i wounder if you are aware of it
.
Removing SIMlocks was banned in the United States from 26 January. Everyone who buys the phone with a SIMlock after that date in order to "free" his mobile will need to obtain an official permission from a carrier . The new legal regulation does not include phones purchased before January 25, carriers are still free to offer unlocked handsets. However, if an American buys a phone with a SIMlock, he would be unable to remove blockages in simple way without permission.
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NO UNLOCKED SIM-LOCK= NO UNLOCKED BOOTLOADER
Oh how glade i am that i am not in USA?:laugh: how much i hate anti -hacker policy !
Warning think twice before you buy phone !!! Simfree
You can always break the law
America. Land of the free..........
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You just have to buy them sim free... Obvious, no?
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alexpraga said:
You just have to buy them sim free... Obvious, no?
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Yeah,and what if its much cheaper to buy on the contract,how about that?
There's a huge problem with this law... Developers are NOT going to honor it. In theory, and on paper, they will. (To protect themselves from legal action) ... But the fact of the matter is this.. It's illegal to download music... How many people has THAT stopped?
If anything, this new law in effect will cause an outrage, and actually help the community. It's bred in our genetic code to be "curious"... So that "curiosity" may very well spark new findings and methods for unlocking, just for the simple fact "someone" is trying to tell us we can't.
This wasn't put in play to hurt the modification community. It was put in place to protect the carriers themselves.
Retail Value -vs- Contract termination to move your newly unlocked phone to a cheaper carrier.
Contract termination is almost always cheaper... So the carriers are actually losing money that way. It's all about the money, and never about the customer. Well...the majority of the time anyways..
power323f said:
America. Land of the free..........
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You mean united states, because America Is not a country, is a continent.
I honestly think we should feel stepped down on devs pride with this law.The operators are putting themselves in "God Mode" and trying to stick you to them.They have absolutely no right to this!Screw these bastards!
panchuckles said:
You mean united states, because America Is not a country, is a continent.
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Yes i know. But ask somebody in the United States of America on the street and they will say they live in America.
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I think this will just make people who really care about this sort of thing step back and take a look at how much money they are wasting buying locked phones. Last time I checked and things may have changed is when I buy a carrier locked phone from att the phone it self costs me 100$ while the phone unlocked is about 450$ so they make it sound like I am getting a good deal buying the phone with two year contracts while in turn they force me to buy expensive and UN-needed carrier provided data plans that are extremely limited. Last time I was with att back when g1 came out it cost me something like 49$ for the phone plan plus extra 39$ for data plan they would not allow me to get the cheaper data plans since the higher priced one in what was "required" by that phone. Soon I canceled that plan. Next I bought with cash a sony x10 cost me something like 300$ then I had my 39$ unlimited talk and text from t-mobile and then 10$ a month for 2gb data since it is all i needed since wifi is everywhere. That saved me 29$x24 months = 696$ - 300 for the phone = total savings of 396$ Not counting the fact that t-mobile plan was cheaper.
Point is for the most part it is cheaper to get an unlocked phone and a lower data plan than it is to buy a contracted phone.
and btw this law effects SIM locks only not BOOTLOADER locks. Still safe to break bootloaders for now. Odd how last year the DMCA made it so they had to give us unlock codes and now it makes it so it is illegal to unlock sims.
DekinGBar said:
I honestly think we should feel stepped down on devs pride with this law.The operators are putting themselves in "God Mode" and trying to stick you to them.They have absolutely no right to this!Screw these bastards!
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It still comes down to the fact that carriers pay you to use their service for 18 months - 2 years. They pay you by giving a $400-$600 phone to you for CHEAP and even FREE prices. No one is forcing anybody to get a subsidized phone instead of unlocked versions. This reaction is comparable to free G-Mail users complaining about how Google scans and saves ALL users E-mail to create a database on them for possible ways to sell something. They can do this because YOU LET THEM. If you don't like how AT&T or others treat customers then don't use their services
power323f said:
Yes i know. But ask somebody in the United States of America on the street and they will say they live in America.
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Only if you ask someone that doesn't care about the United States of America, how it was founded and the Constitution that gives us our Liberty.
Sorry for the off-topic, but as a happy AT&T customer and a citizen of the USA I felt the need to mini-rant
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DekinGBar said:
Yeah,and what if its much cheaper to buy on the contract,how about that?
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It seems cheaper but it's not in the long run! Telecom companies are not really there to buy us phones from manufacturers and give them to us! We are just asking for a loan to buy a phone!
DekinGBar said:
Yeah,and what if its much cheaper to buy on the contract,how about that?
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I don't know about your country but in Germany it is always a lot cheaper to buy an unlocked phone.
The only difference is that when you get a locked phone from a carrier, you don't have to pay it all at once (but with extremely high monthly fees)
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Please note that is not completely illegal for you to unlock your phone in the US - you just cannot use third party companies to do it. A carrier can willingly allow you to unlock your phone - this part is not illegal as they still can issue an unlock code if it inline with their unlock policies.
Make Unlocking Cell Phones Legal. Hurry!!! Few Days Left!!!
Here is the link where you can submit your vote against making unlocking illegal (new government program)
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/make-unlocking-cell-phones-legal/1g9KhZG7
mine420 said:
and btw this law effects SIM locks only not BOOTLOADER locks. Still safe to break bootloaders for now.
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Exactly.
______________
From my LT28
LT28 Thread Index
Sv: SIM-unlock is illegal in the U.S
In Denmark we don't have SIM locks anymore... Only on iPhone if there is any
What is the penalty for unlocking the lock in the US then?
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I don't day that. I say I live in heaven
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So I got this letter from The white house petition site saying this :
*
It's Time to Legalize Cell Phone Unlocking
By R. David Edelman, Senior Advisor for Internet, Innovation, & Privacy
Thank you for sharing your views on cell phone unlocking with us through your petition*on our We the People platform. Last week the White House brought together experts from across government who work on telecommunications, technology, and copyright policy, and we're pleased to offer our response.
The White House agrees with the 114,000+ of you who believe that consumers should be able to unlock their cell phones without risking criminal or other penalties. In fact, we believe the same principle should also apply to tablets, which are increasingly similar to smart phones. And if you have paid for your mobile device, and aren't bound by a service agreement or other obligation, you should be able to use it on another network. It's common sense, crucial for protecting consumer choice, and important for ensuring we continue to have the vibrant, competitive wireless market that delivers innovative products and solid service to meet consumers' needs.
This is particularly important for secondhand or other mobile devices that you might buy or receive as a gift, and want to activate on the wireless network that meets your needs -- even if it isn't the one on which the device was first activated. All consumers deserve that flexibility.
The White House's position detailed in this response builds on some critical thinking done by the President's chief advisory Agency on these matters: the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). For more context and information on the technical aspects of the issue, you can review the NTIA's letter to the Library of Congress' Register of Copyrights (.pdf), voicing strong support for maintaining the previous exception to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) for cell phone carrier unlocking.
Contrary to the NTIA's recommendation, the Librarian of Congress ruled that phones purchased after January of this year would no longer be exempted from the DMCA. The law gives the Librarian the authority to establish or eliminate exceptions -- and we respect that process. But it is also worth noting the statement the Library of Congress released*today on the broader public policy concerns of the issue. Clearly the White House and Library of Congress agree that the DMCA exception process is a rigid and imperfect fit for this telecommunications issue, and we want to ensure this particular challenge for mobile competition is solved.
So where do we go from here?
The Obama Administration would support a range of approaches to addressing this issue, including narrow legislative fixes in the telecommunications space that make it clear: neither criminal law nor technological locks should prevent consumers from switching carriers when they are no longer bound by a service agreement or other obligation.
We also believe the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), with its responsibility for promoting mobile competition and innovation, has an important role to play here. FCC Chairman Genachowski today voiced his concern about mobile phone unlocking (.pdf), and to complement his efforts, NTIA will be formally engaging with the FCC as it addresses this urgent issue.
Finally, we would encourage mobile providers to consider what steps they as businesses can take to ensure that their customers can fully reap the benefits and features they expect when purchasing their devices.
We look forward to continuing to work with Congress, the wireless and mobile phone industries, and most importantly you -- the everyday consumers who stand to benefit from this greater flexibility -- to ensure our laws keep pace with changing technology, protect the economic competitiveness that has led to such innovation in this space, and offer consumers the flexibility and freedoms they deserve.
Tell us what you think about this response and We the People.
Stay Connected
Stay connected to the White House by signing up for periodic email updates from President Obama and other senior administration.
The White House • 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW • Washington, DC 20500 • 202-456-1111
SOOOO.....TIME TO UNLOCK!!!
*
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From what I gathered. Still will be illegal to unlock a phone if "bound by a service agreement" so if your under contract they can refuse to unlock your phone
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Haha. I was just about to post the exact same thing as the OP. Just got the email too.
So if bound by a service agreement, they don't have to unlock the phone. But what's stopping anyone from doing it on their own?
+Bound for Valhalla!
Nice to see our government can work for us for a change.
sswb27 said:
Nice to see our government can work for us for a change.
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They just wanted it off their desk so they can continue to raise our taxes and make their wallets fatter.
Probably just another Ilumminati trick lol
FCC May Approve T-Mobile/MetroPCS Merger Without Full Vote
According to a Communication Workers of America Union attorney, the Federal Communications Commission will approve the T-Mobile/MetroPCS merger without holding a vote. Monica Desai, attorney for the CWA says the deal will be approved “at the bureau level instead of the commission level.”*David Kuat, analyst for Stifel Nicolaus & Co., says this development, if true is a positive signal for the deals prospects.
“I assume it’s good” for the deal’s prospects and shows the merger is “basically non-controversial” aside from the union’s concerns about employment, David Kaut, a Washington- based analyst with Stifel Nicolaus & Co., said in an interview with Bloomberg. “No one thinks this is going to be blocked.”
That’s not to say everyone is in favor of this news as Debbie Goldman, telecommunications policy director for the CWA calls it “outrageous.” “It’s unprecedented that a deal that is this big and has raised controversies about its employment impacts would not be voted on by the full commission.”*For its part, the CWA is concerned the deal would cut “a significant number of jobs,” but failed to supply a figure in their March 4th filing to the FCC. T-Mobile says it plans to continue hiring at call centers, “increasing the number of overall US positions,” but also failed to give specific numbers. T-Mobile laid off close to 100 employees last week in efforts to cut overlapping staff in anticipation of the deals close.
As anticipated, T-Mobile and MetroPCS will continue to run as two separate brands and businesses maintaining two separate networks of retailer stores and dealer franchisees for at least the next two years.*The deal is expected to win full regulatory support in the hopes of boosting T-Mobile’s position in the market as regulators begin to look at AT&T and Verizon as having too much power.
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