Unlocking US Phones
Consumer advocates support the FCC’s unanimous decision to pursue rules to require carriers to unlock mobile phones within 60 days of activation. The deadline for initial public comments ends on Monday, Sept 9. The published schedule indicates the FCC will review comments and accept replies for a short time afterward.
This is a necessary correction. Carrier-locked phones are simply primitive. It’s astonishing to me that the practice is allowed at all. It’s a common practice only in the US. We have telephone number portability and interoperable cellular technologies, but then we voluntarily break interoperability with locked devices.
The phones come out of the box interoperable, but we deliberately break them so the big carriers have more lock-in. There’s nothing the carriers hate more than open, competitive markets.
In the US, we’ve mistakenly linked phone financing with locked devices. While it’s understandable that modern smartphones are expensive and may need to be financed, this should be a separate arrangement from telephone provider servers. You should have the freedom to finance your phone independently, even if you decide to switch carriers.
Making matters more complex is the rise of multi-sim phones. Some of these locked phones lock both sims, denying their owners carrier redundancy. The ability to select (and switch) carriers should be a fundamental consumer right, especially given the often poor quality of customer service.
This issue of locked phones limits competition in UCaaS in the US. I’ve written many times about UCaaS Mobility 3.0. I use this term to describe a UCaaS number natively on the cell phone. The service is available from both Microsoft and Cisco and many other UCaaS providers.
It’s a brilliant concept as it allows users to separate their private mobile persona from their work persona — with one phone and without specialized software. It’s typically set up with two SIMs (personal and work comms) on a single phone.
I consider this a revolutionary breakthrough in enterprise comms, but the concept has seen slow adoption. Why? Primarily because of locked phones! There are two ways to implement Microsoft Teams natively on a cell phone. Either through MVNO or MNO, both of which are hindered by locked devices.
For most of last year, Verizon has had an exclusive on Microsoft Teams Mobile in the US – but if the employee had a locked phone from AT&T the service wasn’t supported. I’ve been using the Cisco Webex Go solution with an unlocked phone on an MVNO. Everywhere I go in the world, my phone connects to the Webex mobile network.
This model enables an enterprise to select Cisco Webex as a single provider for calls, meetings, messaging, and cellular globally — except for employees in the US using a Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile or other locked phone can’t participate. This puts American enterprises at a disadvantage compared to European counterparts.