Just saw this today:

[online.wsj.com]

"With the scarcity of mass unlocking, the price to unlock an AT&T iPhone has gone from $1 or $2 per device to as high as $100 in just a month, according to people in the industry and companies that still offer the service."

Thread from yesterday:

[forums.macresource.com]

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My music blog: [www.auditorymusings.net]


The Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, Colorado

I believe this might be one of those rare times where the goverment needs to put some regulations in place to curb this problem.

All phones should be automatically unlocked when the contract is up. Regardless of who has the phone, 2 years after point of sale and their system automatically unlocks them.

As someone who was bit buying a used phone and then having it reported stolen and bricked months later I believe that we also need a way to track the registered owner of a phone. There also needs to be some standardized way to deal with these bricked phones. As of right now there is no way to find the original "owner" or provide proof of a legal purchase to get the phones unlocked again.

They built this system to stop theft, which it did, but there is an aweful lot of collateral damage to innocent people and companies that are stuck with devices that they had no way of knowing were stolen or that are victims of vindictive original owners.

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C(-)ris
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C(-)ris... actually there is a chain of law that can be used in such situations, involving sale of stolen merchandise , or fraud, or 'licensing'. I would rather not see more bad legislation put in place for a hot button issue.

Of course in most cases involving the law is far more expensive and annoying than using the $300 or so lost as a 'lesson learned'. And of course it's to the benfit of manufacturers and cellular providers to not give a hoot about this.

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cbelt3
C(-)ris... actually there is a chain of law that can be used in such situations, involving sale of stolen merchandise , or fraud, or 'licensing'. I would rather not see more bad legislation put in place for a hot button issue.

Of course in most cases involving the law is far more expensive and annoying than using the $300 or so lost as a 'lesson learned'. And of course it's to the benfit of manufacturers and cellular providers to not give a hoot about this.

Nobody in law enforcement is going to do anything about a stolen cellphone. Sure, you can turn it in to the police. They will sit on it for 90 days to a year. Then give it back along with proof of ownership to you if no one claims it. But then you are STILL stuck with a phone that is bricked. The carrier still won't unlock it even if you have that proof of ownership paper because you weren't the original owner they had registered to the phone. You would then have to file a civil case in court against them for the value of the phone they unlawfully bricked. You will win because they don't show up. They will be ordered to pay the judgement, which they won't. You have to wait 90 days then you can file a complaint and another letter will be sent by the court. After that, you can go into collections which they won't pay, or you have to file with the court to have the sheriff in the county that the business resides in to collect. All that will take over a year, and your costs will FAR outweigh the cost of the phone.

In short, the current law is completely useless. The carriers bricking the phones is illegal in some case. The costs to the individual user are relative small, but as a whole, there is probably millions of dollars at stake. A class action lawsuit against the carriers and managers of the stolen database might be the best bet. Right now the system is rigged to make used phones near worthless. Carriers make out like bandits selling more phones and consumers are screwed as their perfectly good 2 year old phone has little resale value.

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C(-)ris
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Currently trying to do two AT&T iPhones

My wife's they said it wasn't out of contract but it was after 2 years and I had to call them and then the next day they said it was unlocked

A reboot with iTunes and restore would show it being unlocked



The other phone was given to me by a friend at work

I got all the information to fill out the online application to unlock

The next day they came back with an email saying they couldn't unlock it because the account was not up-to-date maybe didn't pay their bill I have to contact my friend. And see if that is true

They certainly make you jump through hoops

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Microman
Currently trying to do two AT&T iPhones

My wife's they said it wasn't out of contract but it was after 2 years and I had to call them and then the next day they said it was unlocked

A reboot with iTunes and restore would show it being unlocked



The other phone was given to me by a friend at work

I got all the information to fill out the online application to unlock

The next day they came back with an email saying they couldn't unlock it because the account was not up-to-date maybe didn't pay their bill I have to contact my friend. And see if that is true

They certainly make you jump through hoops

Even if you unlock it now and it works fine, he can still call them next week and have it blocked and it will be a useless brick.

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C(-)ris
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If there's a law-talkin-guy monitoring this thread, I'd be interested to learn what they think about this issue as related to First Sale Doctrine. In brief, IANAL terms, that means the seller of an item can't dictate how the buyer uses or resells it after the transaction is completed. That was why Scholastic Books didn't have grounds to threaten me over reselling a copy of the last Harry Potter book that DeepDiscount accidentally delivered a week before the release date several years back (yes, that was me).

A cell phone isn't a book, but it is physical property (yes, containing software), just based on my layman's thinking, I wonder if users of locked, paid-for, out of contract phones wouldn't have standing for a First Sale lawsuit.

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C(-)ris
All phones should be automatically unlocked when the contract is up. Regardless of who has the phone, 2 years after point of sale and their system automatically unlocks them.

This makes the most sense of anything I've read thus far. And I can't for the life of me think of a downside or a reason it couldn't/shouldn't be done. Well, other than the fact that the original carrier might not want to.

C(-)ris.. I was thinking that rather than criminal law it would be civil case matter (small claims court). But yeah, I agree.

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cbelt3
C(-)ris.. I was thinking that rather than criminal law it would be civil case matter (small claims court). But yeah, I agree.

As a whole their actions could be seen as fraud and be criminal. But individually it would have to be a civil matter.

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C(-)ris
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Finally maybe some policy change on this: New FCC chairman tells wireless carriers to unlock cell phones

Wow, crazy timing on this!

FINALLY

I got it unlocked today.. the computer shop I finally gave it o said it was the hardest phone they ever worked with. It was also the first iOS7 iphone they had dealt with (I live in a small town). they had done iOS6 with no issue but this one was such a challenge they didn't even charge me - guy said it was fun even if it did take more than 2 weeks!

Now the next weird thing -- it runs my Pure Talk sim fine, but won't recognize the my son's MetroPCS sim at all. Makes no sense.

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