All this talk about mobile phones and wireless carriers has me thinking about the what I dislike about the wireless industry in the United States. It is that wireless carriers lock the phones to only work on their networks and lock out features included in the phones.

It is my experience in Europe and other locations outside the U.S., that the phone and the service are separate.  You buy a phone, then you buy a SIM card that ties you to a carrier.  Technically, this is possible in the U.S., however, there are only two major GSM carriers (AT&T and T-Moble) except that because we buy phones from the carriers they are able to lock them to only work on their networks.  Think about it, you’re less likely to switch networks if you have to buy another phone.

Because the carriers lock the phones, they also get to remove features that they don’t want you to use.  For example, I had a Motorola RAZR on T-Mobile and I was able to transfer contacts and files to and from my phone via Bluetooth.  I could also use my phone as a modem via Bluetooth.  My father had the same phone on Verizon that would not allow files to be transfered at all and Bluetooth could only be used for headsets.  Another example of blocking features when I was on Sprint, I bought a Nokia phone (don’t remember the model) because the Nokia literature said that the phone was internet ready.  When I got the phone from Sprint, however, that functionality had been turned off.  Because Sprint would not take the phone back, I canceled my internet service and suffered that phone for a year and promptly left when the contract was up.

These days all of the carriers have phones on their networks that allow tethering but they disable this feature because they want to charge extra for it.  Should that not be included in the already “unlimited” data plans to which those users have subscribed?  Many carriers are still charging for ringtones instead of allowing customers to store their own on the phone.  Many other features have been disabled or forbidden as well.

I switched from CDMA to GSM because I thought it was a little closer to freedom but carriers still lock down the phones. True freedom would allow me to use whatever phone I want on whatever network I want.  That requires a change to the way the wireless carriers operate in the United States.  If the carriers have no control over the phones the actual wireless service will be forced to get better.

I just signed this petition to free my phone.  You should too if you want:

• The freedom to choose any phone on any network.
• The freedom to choose among many carriers in a competitive, low-cost marketplace.
• The freedom to access any Web content, applications or services we want through our phones.

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