Maes
I like big butts!
Posts: 10176
Registered: 07-06 |
Aliotroph? said:
It's easy enough to keep SIM cards and switch to simpler, more robust phones when the need arises. It's also a good idea to make locked phones illegal so it's easier to do this.
Actually, none is preventing you from taking out the SIM from your new fancy smartphone and putting it into anything you want: the lock affects the fancy smartphone itself (will only work with That One SIM card, or with a SIM card from a specific operator, in order to prevent you from breaking your lease).
However, there's no such thing as a "reverse SIM-phone lock", aka a SIM card that will only work on a specific phone (unless it's a non-standard one...but then then phone itself would need to be heavily modified, in which case both would really be useless to keep around).
Get it in your head people, SIM locking is there for a reason:
Wikipedia sez:The reason many network providers SIM lock their phones is that they offer phones at a discount to customers in exchange for a contract to pay for the use of the network for a specified time period, usually between one and three years. This business model allows the company to recoup the cost of the phone over the life of the contract. Such discounts are worth up to several hundred US dollars. If the phones were not locked, users might sign a contract with one company, get the discounted phone, then stop paying the monthly bill (thus breaking the contract) and start using the phone on another network or even sell the phone for a profit. SIM locking curbs this, by prohibiting change of network (using a new SIM). SIM locking is very common if subsidised phones are sold with prepaid contracts.
If some gov't decided to effectively legitimize this practice (YMMV), the worse for the customers, but that's free(?) market for you. The hard truth is, that if you really need to always be in control of your phone, have unrestricted roaming and changing providers like used lemon cups, then you must swallow the bitter cum pay the full price and purchase your device outside of a binding contract. Simple as that.
Last edited by Maes on 02-07-13 at 12:34
|
02-07-13 09:21 
