Ability To Unlock Handsets Is Hardly A Market-Changing Event

We noted yesterday one potential fallout from the Copyright Office's decision to exempt mobile phone unlocking from the anti-circumvention rules of the DMCA -- prepaid provider Tracfone saying it might sue to get the exemption reversed in an attempt to protect its business model. But what's the wider impact going to be for consumers? Despite the decision being depicted in some quarters as a "market bombshell", it's unlikely to have a huge impact, because it's not as if operators are now banned from locking handsets, merely unlocking them has been made clearly legal. The biggest threat is to prepaid operators, since the sort of thing Tracfone fears -- people buying their cheap handsets only to use them with another service, or export them -- could grow. Subsidizing prepaid handsets is a risky proposition anyway since there's no way to ensure customers will stick around long enough and spend enough money to recoup operators' outlay. For postpaid customers, which make up the vast majority of the US market, customers still won't be able to subvert the subsidies, because they'll be locked in to a contract, while the incompatibilities of the technologies different operators use makes taking a handset from one network to another attractive or even possible in only a few cases. The reality of the situation, though, is that consumers tend to like subsidies, since they decrease the cost of mobile handsets. Those early adopters or enthusiasts that wish to buy unlocked handsets already have the means to pretty easily do so, but the majority of American mobile consumers have little interest in paying higher prices for mobile handsets, and will work with operators to accept subsidies as long as they're offered.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    Carl, 5 Dec 2006 @ 11:12am

    Unlocking handsets should be civil not criminal

    Can't prepaid providers simply include contract terms against unlocking a handset as part of the purchase agreement like "shrinkwrap" software providers have done for years? If they already have these terms, they should head to civil (not criminal) court.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Ryan, 3 Dec 2010 @ 9:41am

    Re: Unlocking handsets should be civil not criminal

    The whole point of a prepaid phone and one way that they gain their customers is by having no contracts

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.