> Samsung, Apple and LG are among those who have not switched on the chip, but HTC and Motorola chips haven't been blocked, Smulyan says. Sprint has turned on the FM chip for phones on its network.

It seems like they're citing manufacturers as well as carriers. Since many major carriers order variants of phone models specific to their network, it's not out of the question that either could be responsible for the lockout, even if it is at the hardware level.