Jul 11
25
Verizon wireless phones include a wide variety of makes and models, feature-sets and form factors. Thanks to the recent signup of Apple’s bestselling iPhone, however, Verizon customers can now expect an even greater wealth of chatting choices!
On the other hand, these devices are just commodities now and people don’t really talk about Verizon wireless phones as opposed to something from some other company. The situation is now akin to that of laundry detergent, with hardly a significant difference across brands. That’s because the market has changed dramatically since ten or fifteen years back when a cell phone was a status symbol! No, today cell phones are ubiquitous, to the point that the corner payphone of old has just about disappeared from most city streets in the industrialized world.
And so this is why folks don’t specifically speak of Verizon wireless phones – they just want something that allows them to talk, first and foremost, carrier be damned! And so carriers have taken to “locking” up their phones (that should be “their” phones, really – more on this in a moment), recognizing that customers have no brand loyalty anymore. Correct: the phone is rendered inoperable when customers switch service providers! Even though the customer did pay for the phone – even though the phone belongs to the customer….
Nope! Cellular network companies argue that since they subsidize part of the cost of the phone, making it cheaper when purchased as part of a subscription plan compared to being bought separately, they have the right to lock their phones – yes, “their” phones. Curiously, there has been no class-action lawsuit against such a potentially anti-competitive policy, one that’s long been adopted by all the carriers in the industry. Surely there are legal loopholes involved, though one wonders why tobacco companies can be successfully sued but not wireless service providers which purposely render people’s handsets useless!
But all hope’s not los; there’s a way around the onerous policies. Depending on the kind, GSM or CDMA, one could be unlocked by simply punching a particular code into the keypad!
