

All cellphones in Chile must be sold unlocked - peeplaja
http://www.theverge.com/mobile/2012/1/4/2681271/chile-sim-unlock-january-16th

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jvdh
In some countries in Europe it is already obligatory to sell an unlocked
version, usually a locked version is also sold. If you examine the pricing
closely, it does not really matter which one you get, you end up paying the
same amount, either directly (unlocked), or monthly (locked).

I expect that in Chile all contracts will either rise in price, or phones will
become a lot more expensive to buy.

While it sounds like a nice idea, as a consumer you don't really gain that
much.

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Mavrik
That makes no sense: here they sell unlocked phones but you still have to keep
contract for two years if you want it subsidized.

So there's no reason to rise phone prices: you still have to pay full contact
subscription even if you change the phone.

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daliusd
There is reason. Usually business plan looks like this:

locked - monthly payment * 24 = phone price + X

X - some money to cover expenses you have as operator because you give phone
to user + some money to cover amount of free minutes/MB/SMS (infrastructure is
not free) + everything else is profit. Profit might be taken instantly (A) or
taken from everything you use above your quota (B). (A) is most probably 0
because of competition.

Now with unlocked phone user might take prepaid card from other operator (that
does not work in USA). What happens? B profit goes away. Business is about
profit therefore A will grow most probably instead of being zero.

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Mavrik
Hmm... most subscription packages around here are of type "1000 Min, 1000 SMS,
1000 MB" or some such so B profits aren't really high.

Also pricing being competitive, there's not much difference in SMS/data/call
prices outside dataplans.

That makes that claim still silly.

~~~
jvdh
Fact: an iPhone in the Netherlands costs around €0 on average. You can also
buy it unlocked for €750.

In Greece they have to sell iPhones unlocked, and initial average price is
€699.

Easy to check yourself at apple.com.

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peteretep
I wonder if this will lead to more restrictive contracts.

I joined a gym a while ago that made me commit to a year's membership by
taking out a loan for buying a year's pass. This was suboptimal for me because
it showed up on my credit report and ran a credit check, but perfect for them
because there was no easy way for me to weasel out of my contract, and they
could simply pass the debt over to a credit-collection agency if I stopped
paying.

I wonder if we'll see mobile phone contracts that come with a phone being
treated the same way if the phone has to be sold unlocked.

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casca
Network locking is a form of money. If I can lock your phone to my network,
that's worth money to me because you're more likely to stay with my network.
As such, I can offer the phone to you for cheaper.

If I can't lock it, I'm going to charge you more. Is this something that
requires government intervention? Perhaps, as many people don't understand the
issues and may be taken advantage of. IMHO a better solution would be to
require a maximum price to unlock phones (10 currency units?) and not get so
involved in technology that changes quickly.

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StavrosK
All phones in Greece are de facto unlocked.

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lancewiggs
ditto in New Zealand.

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Sapient
And South Africa

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Shorel
It's the same in Colombia now.

And you can keep your phone number even if you switch network providers.

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rmc
Keeping your phone number (aka number portability) does wonders for allowing
people to change networks and allowing competition.

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fijal
Same in South Africa

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iworkforthem
The same in Australia, Malaysia & Singapore.

~~~
rweir
Definitely not the case in Australia (thought as far as I know all carriers
unlock for free/small fee). Locking at all is just a dick move - the telco
already made you sign a contract, if you want to switch carriers, they still
get their money.

~~~
DanBC
Some English police stations have signs saying that they investigate all
reports of stolen mobile (cell) phones, and if you make a false report of
having your phone stolen you can expect them to find out and that they will
prosecute you for it.

Apparently telling the telco that you had your phone stolen in an effort to
get out of the contract was so popular the telcos started needing police
incident numbers.

