Subject: [NEXTEL-1] CONSUMERS UNION, RURAL CARRIERS ASK FCC TO ACT ON HANDSET LOCKING

From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2004 07:06:48 -0500

CONSUMERS UNION, RURAL CARRIERS ASK FCC TO ACT ON HANDSET LOCKING

Consumers Union and the Rural Telecommunications Group are
reiterating their call for the FCC to prevent large carriers from
locking
their handsets, which they said was thwarting competition by
preventing consumers from keeping their phones when they switch
providers.

"Given that consumers are spending as much as $600 on combination
cellphone/personal digital assistants, it is wasteful and uneconomic
for
consumers to have to dump those phones in the trash every time they
want to switch service providers," Consumers Union said in a letter
sent last Friday to FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell.  "If consumers
could keep their cellphones when they switch carriers, we believe both
the costs of phones and wireless service would decline, as companies
are forced to compete more directly on the price of their equipment
and service."

The letter added that "eliminating the practice of wireless handset
locking will have a very positive impact on public health and the
environment," noting that millions of wireless handsets were discarded
each year.  It also would encourage greater interoperability among
handsets, potentially benefiting people who call "911" services, the
group said.

In a letter to Mr. Powell yesterday, RTG supported the Consumers
Union appeal, and noted that a rural carrier had raised the issue with
the FCC nearly two years ago and the group had raised it last summer.

RTG said small carriers were often unable to buy the latest handsets
from manufacturers.  As a result, many consumers who switch from
major wireless carriers to small providers "are forced to purchase an
inferior phone from the rural carrier because their previous carrier
locked the handset."  In some cases, rural subscribers switch to larger
carriers and take unlocked handsets with them.  When they switch
back, however, they are unable to continue to use the handset because
the large carrier has locked them, RTG said.

Large carriers contend they lock the handsets to protect their
investments in subsidizing the phones, some of which are provided
free of charge.  But the Consumers Union letter says the early-
termination fees that subscribers pay when they cancel their service
before their contracts expire "should more than cover the cost of any
handset subsidies." - Paul Kirby, [email-masked]

http://www.tr.com/online/trd/2004/td031904/index.htm

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From: "Bill Smith" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2004 08:50:07 -0500

Yes Mr. Powell, Please make them unlock my CDMA handset so I can use it on
the competition's GSM network. I can see Consumer's not having a technical
clue, but RTG? Should I now suddenly expect my T730 to do not only
CDMA/1X/Analog and now GSM???

Is it me? Or is wireless in general sounding more and more like something
from the Twilight Zone? Some days I expect to read that Timmy ripped off the
mask to reveal Rod Serling :-)

-----Original Message-----
From: Marcelrf [mailto:[email-masked]] 
Sent: Tuesday, March 23, 2004 7:07
To: [email-masked]
Subject: [NEXTEL-1] CONSUMERS UNION, RURAL CARRIERS ASK FCC TO ACT ON
HANDSET LOCKING

" 

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