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Re:Forget the Cellphone Fight — We Should Be Allowed to Unlo... by venomsnake on Monday March 18, 2013 @01:09PM (#5395530)
That is fallacy. Carriers are oligopoly with high cost of entrance. So if all carriers provide only locked phones there may not be enough devices on the market.

There should be laws preventing forced vertical integration. If you sell hardware you cannot restrict the os(you are free to provide os, but locking of the bootloader should be left to the user). If you sell OS you cannot limit what applications the user can run and from where to obtain them etc ...

Re:Forget the Cellphone Fight — We Should Be Allowed to Unlo... by rayiner on Monday March 18, 2013 @02:43PM (#5396273)
> So if all carriers provide only locked phones there may not be enough devices on the market.

Except you can buy directly from the phone manufacturer: https://play.google.com/store/devices/details/Nexus_4_8GB?id..., http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_iphone

Your argument basically amounts to: "if the carriers did have a monopoly on phones, then there would be a problem."

Re:Forget the Cellphone Fight — We Should Be Allowed to Unlo... by netc on Monday March 18, 2013 @05:02PM (#5397111)
yet, ATT & Verizon will not charge less. wait, they will force you to buy a data plan too if you use your unlocked smartphone. Imagine a real state market - take mortgage or pay double for the house if you pay cash.
Re:Forget the Cellphone Fight — We Should Be Allowed to Unlo... by anigbrowl on Monday March 18, 2013 @02:50PM (#5396318)
Or you could go to MetroPCS or one of several other providers and buy an unlocked phone. T-Mobile offers both contract and month-to-month service, and IIRC will sell you an unlocked phone if you're willing to pay up front for it.
Re:Forget the Cellphone Fight — We Should Be Allowed to Unlo... by icebraining on Monday March 18, 2013 @01:23PM (#5395641)
Why are you limited to carrier-provided phones?