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U.S. Said to Investigate AT&T and Verizon Over Wireless Collusion Claim
- GW150914 9y agoIn a private meeting of a task force called G.S.M.A. North America this year, AT&T and Verizon pushed for the ability to lock phones to their networks, bypassing the purpose of eSIM technology, said Harold Feld, a senior vice president of Public Knowledge, a nonprofit consumer group, who was briefed on the meeting. Verizon has said it needed to be able to lock down phones to prevent theft and fraud. To prevent theft and fraud?! They literally have no shame, and I hope the government throws the book at them. Telecoms and ISP’s are just the worst of the worst, along with banks, and both need aggressive oversight to stop them from outright robbing us all and calling it “holding your money for safekeeping.”
- nashashmi 9y agoVerizon has an army of lawyers. That is the best line they can come up with because they are not creative, or reasonable, or as enthusiastic about their jobs, just enough to get by with whatever mentality they have adopted in their careers. And lawyers have no ability to self reflect with conscience. If they did, how could they do their jobs.
- flyingcircus3 9y agoI hope they cast Al Pacino in a good role when they make this period piece in a couple of decades. He's got pretty good experience from his previous role as Michael Corleone. Corleone goes to Cuba just before the Castro Regime takes over, and meets with the heads of United fruit company, At&t, and other companies that were too big too fail in 1959. In his characteristic savvy, he sees the entire trip for what it is, and predicts his own assassination, figures out who's been the mole in his family, and attempts his own capitalist venture, if you will. It's a good thing we snuffed out all that organized crime. https://youtu.be/OM9sIbddq24 https://youtu.be/OM9sIbddq24
- rrdharan 8y agoApple’s Kill switch actually has dramatically reduced fraud rates. https://www.igeeksblog.com/apple-kill-switch-reduced-iphone-theft-worldwide/ https://www.igeeksblog.com/apple-kill-switch-reduced-iphone-... Short of Google building something like this, with all the concerns and disputes that would lead to, it seems like the carriers almost certainly need to build something like this for Android phones?
- IBM 9y ago>The investigation was opened about five months ago after at least one device maker and one wireless carrier filed formal complaints with the Justice Department, two of the people said. Betting it's Apple. They're probably eager to get rid of SIM slots.
- logical42 8y ago‘The investigation was opened about five months ago after at least one device maker and one wireless carrier filed formal complaints with the Justice Department, two of the people said. The device maker was Apple, one of them said.’
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- reaperducer 9y agoYep. My guess is Apple and T-Mobile.
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- joecool1029 9y agoRelated but the IMEI blacklist is the definition of collusion. It's done serious damage to the used phone market. Even if an IMEI comes back clean, there's nothing stopping former owner from reporting it as stolen later on and causing the phone to become worthless across all providers in the US. I'm not pro-theft, but there's no way to be 100% sure a device is going to work and not flag when purchasing used anymore. Apple's method of doing icloud lock was a far more elegant solution to the theft problem.
- gok 9y agoIt’s collusion in the sense that agreeing to use an industry standard is collusion (which is to say, it isn’t collusion).
- mindslight 9y agoStandards are generally classes, not instances. Having said that, what we really need to focus on is getting baseband software ripped open so that there are no longer any fixed identifiers such as IMEIs. Hardware with a mandatory surveillance identity has no place in a Free society.
- MBCook 8y agoI seem to remember it’s also dramatically lowered phone theft rates.
- ndesaulniers 8y agoSomething very wrong is going on with IMEI blacklist. We had a brand new phone stop connecting to T-mobile's network (in the US). When we went in to the store, they told us the IMEI was reported as a stolen phone. I brought back my receipt showing it was a new phone when I got it. They said they could not unblock because they didn't put the block in place, a carrier in Mexico did. The phone has never been used outside of the country, to the best of my knowledge. When I called the carrier in Mexico, they told me it was not possible for them to blacklist the IMEI of a device that's never been on their network, and that they had no record of my IMEI. I ended up returning my phone, at the expense of the manufacturer. Also, frequently when I sell my old phones on eBay, people love to ask for the IMEI to check the blacklist, but I believe they can also be programmitically swapped (the potential buyer has a blacklisted/stolen phone, and simply asks for a valid one), so I never provide it.
- rdiddly 9y agoWow, you mean "the undeniable value we provide, our awesome service and uncompromising commitment to the customer" aren't enough to keep customers around?
- swoongoonz 9y ago>lock a device to their network even if it had eSIM technology. Why not just buy a new sim card?
- maxerickson 9y agoeSIM devices don't necessarily have a slot.
- rdudek 9y agoGood, screw them both. Had issues with AT&T in the past not liking my unlocked Samsung Note phone. They would not provision it fully and caused my service to suffer.