Unlock the phones

The U.S. Copyright Office recently ruled it's legal for cell phone owners to break the “locks” most carriers place on their handsets to prevent their customers from taking them to another provider. In truth, it's hardly the biggest victory for consumers because the ruling does nothing to prevent carriers from implementing the locks — it merely stops them from enforcing them in case a wily customer takes the time to crack the digital code on his or her phone.

But maybe it's time the industry started unlocking phones in general. The practice has simply become outdated. What was intended as a way for a carrier to protect its investment in a customer — after subsidizing a phone — has turned into undo leverage over individual customers and has given rise to the ridiculous notion that phones, not service, are tied to individual carriers. The majority of customers switch service after fulfilling their contracts, presumably the period over which they've paid back their subsidy to the operator.

Although many carriers will unlock the phones after that period is over, none encourage it. In fact, they reinforce the notion that a customer's cell service is tied to their particular handset. Upgrading a phone often necessitates signing a new contract, and bringing an unlocked phone to a new carrier often results in the same contract terms the operator would provide to a new customer with a subsidized phone. I'm not trying to deny the right of carriers to protect their investments — they should be able to ensure that the free phone they give away at activation doesn't wind up carrying a competitors signal the next month. But that is what contracts are for.

The end result is millions of phones are discarded each year, most thrown away but some winding up as toys for young children. According to The Wireless Alliance, a for-profit company that recycles and refurbishes phones, only 2% of all handsets go unused or get recycled. Alliance Vice President John Newman said that 50% of those phones could be used again, either passed along to another user or refurbished. The bottom line, though, is that's never going to happen as long as carriers perpetuate the myth that every individual phone is tied to the service provider from which it came.