Mobile phones have become a cornerstone in how our society communicates, in how the world communicates. When once there were dark spots of communication across our country in areas where phone lines couldn’t reach we can now connect to one another. Lives have been saved by them and have been made easier by them. Mobile phones have become such an integral part of our society that merely having one is no longer a status symbol. You must now have the “right” one. I have seen those from all walks of life with them. Young and old, rich and poor. Cell phones unite us, give us common ground in a way that few things, save our humanity, have done before.
If you are from the United States you can proudly say that your nation created the cell phone and changed the world with it. The world has embraced our endeavor and has built empires from it. Yet, though we were the first with it, we are ashamedly behind the rest of the world in not only our use of the technology, but also the advancement of it.
In November of 2008, I went on a trip to London, England. I had never been to the UK nor had I ever gone further than just crossing the Canadian border (as a kid no less). I was experiencing the world from a very different point of view for the first time and I learned much. While in London I decided to buy a mobile phone so that I could check on times for restaurants and attractions and so that I could call home. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money since I would only be there for a week, but after running the numbers I found it to be cheaper than buying phone cards or bringing my American phone (on AT&T) with me. I found a small shop with a phone that cost me £5 which, at the time, was roughly $7.
With each phone you buy in the UK and across Europe you must also get a SIM card for it. No big deal, I have done that before with AT&T and I knew that T-Mobile here uses that as well. So I bought a T-Mobile SIM card and put it in the phone. With less than 4 minutes of talk time (calling home) I ran out of minutes. Quickly realizing that I couldn’t afford those rates I decided to go with another carrier. However unlike here, when I found a carrier with better rates I didn’t have to buy another phone. I just bought another SIM card and swapped them out. No contracts, no hassles, nothing. This was amazing to me. I figured at least they would put me through some rigamarole just to irritate me. I expected it so much that I almost wanted it to happen. But it didn’t and I went on my way with a new carrier that had stellar international rates (something like 7 pence a minute).
Stories like that don’t happen in the United States unless you specifically hunted down and purchased an “unlocked” phone. Though carriers here have all but criminalized having unlocked phones. In fact Apple has criminalized it and has taken measures to stop it. Now what, you may ask, is going on in Europe? How did they get the freedom to move from carrier to carrier without penalty or contract? How can they take a phone sold by T-Mobile and use it with another carrier’s SIM card? Why don’t we have this available?
I can almost feel the outrage bubbling in up in the gut of anyone reading this story. I can also answer these questions. In Europe, sometime in the early days of cell phones, a few wise lawmakers and others saw trouble brewing. Carriers wanting to use proprietary technology to crush their competitors. Technology that they wouldn’t allow others to connect to. This would mean that every carrier would have to build their own cell phone towers. They also saw that innovation was being stifled in the US because of device to carrier lock-ins that were occuring and they took action. Europe’s limited space would mean that fighting for space to setup competing cell phone towers was impractical. So they passed laws that first required all carriers to adopt the same transmission technology, in this case the chose GSM. They also required carriers to allow competing carriers to relay calls from their towers. Thus significantly reducing the number of towers needed per square mile.
But they didn’t stop there. They also required carriers to sell unlocked versions along-side the locked versions of phone models. Customers took to these unlocked phones in such great numbers that it became a norm and the demand for locked phones greatly deminished. This opened up not only innovation but choice and better competition and the customer got to decide who won, not some deals done behind closed doors.
Unfortunately none of this skipped across the pond over to us. So we are left where we are now. Locked into contracts, no freedom of carrier and phone choice. You have to pick one or the other. Yes there are some carriers that offer no-contract services, but that is nothing compared to what we are missing because carriers insist on controlling the customer on every level. That includes telling us what phones we do and don’t like and what plans that we should have. Choice is not an option here and it is rediculous.
Recently some changes have been happening. More and more people are clamoring for more cell phone freedom. Hopefully we will get some. A further discussion on the issue can be found at TG Daily. Please feel free to leave your comments about this here.
-Pjerky
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Tags: carrier freedom, cell phones, Consumer Rights, Europe, legalese, London, Mobile phones, No Contracts, SIM card, SMS, UK
People have been misled into believing that “competition” is mainly among big companies. The fact is, the real competition is between big companies and little companies.
The big companies have banded together to BUY laws that will prevent small companies from becoming viable. Then they work together like an oil cartel (like OPEC) to set the limits of what is charged and what the customers get. Then they pretend to be competing.
This is what’s so for most of the industries/business of our country, not just cell service providers. Look around you. Where do you see small businesses really competing? Restaurants? Groceries? Grocery stores? Any stores? Internet service? Automobiles? Medicines? TV? Farms? Movie theaters? Health care?
??
The cell companies would disagree that we are “behind” — they would consider that we are ahead, big time.
Nice blog! And it’s cute what Google ads show up here (all 4 cell phones)
Thanks for leaving a comment. It is always great to hear the thoughts of others on what I write.
As for competition. I agree completely with you. Big companies usually have developed an extensive bureaucracy and because of that it is a lot more costly for them to run their operations than it would be for the little companies. They recognize this and so use their influence to do like you have said, “Buy” laws. I have grown tired of the way politicians have been damaging consumer rights and in deed our civil rights.
I recently read a story about a community in Hawaii that had to band together to repair a bridge and a road that was vital to their primary source of income, tourism, because the city, state, and federal government was incapable of providing the funds or even dedicating any time to the issue. It makes me wonder just how much government helps us and how much it limits us.
What we do know that works is when people band together for a common cause. It may be more beneficial for communities to rediscover that concept and work together to improve things instead of waiting for the government to “fix” all our problems. I think this level of personal responsibility within communities could lead to many great improvements.
Thanks again for your comments. I will be sure to check out your site.