5 ms·

All cellphones in Chile must be sold unlocked

63 points by peeplaja 15y ago

iworkforthem 15y ago
The same in Australia, Malaysia & Singapore.
- rweir 15y ago
  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 15y ago
    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.
- keeperofdakeys 15y ago
  There is no such thing in Australia. While there certainly is more of a market for unlocked phones then in the US, the majority of phones bought in Australia are locked. This includes prepaid phones and phones on a contract.
StavrosK 15y ago
All phones in Greece are de facto unlocked.
- lancewiggs 15y ago
  ditto in New Zealand.
  - Sapient 15y ago
    And South Africa
peteretep 15y ago
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.
jvdh 15y ago
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.
- Mavrik 15y ago
  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.
  - Sherlock 15y ago
    This is the usual practice here in Chile, and I don't expect it to change.
  - edgardcastro 15y ago
    Thats exactly what happens in Brazil. All phones MUST be sold unlocked but they lock you in with contracts in order to get cheaper phones. However if you choose to buy a "fully unlocked" phone, the prices have skyrocketed. (We have the most expensive iPhone worldwide, 16GB 4S = 1.2K dollars).
  - daliusd 15y ago
    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.
fijal 15y ago
Same in South Africa
casca 15y ago
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.
Shorel 15y ago
It's the same in Colombia now. And you can keep your phone number even if you switch network providers.
- rmc 15y ago
  Keeping your phone number (aka number portability) does wonders for allowing people to change networks and allowing competition.

63 points by peeplaja 15y ago

iworkforthem 15y ago

The same in Australia, Malaysia & Singapore.

rweir 15y ago
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 15y ago
  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.
keeperofdakeys 15y ago
There is no such thing in Australia. While there certainly is more of a market for unlocked phones then in the US, the majority of phones bought in Australia are locked. This includes prepaid phones and phones on a contract.

StavrosK 15y ago

All phones in Greece are de facto unlocked.

lancewiggs 15y ago
ditto in New Zealand.
- Sapient 15y ago
  And South Africa

peteretep 15y ago

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.

jvdh 15y ago

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.

Mavrik 15y ago
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.
- Sherlock 15y ago
  This is the usual practice here in Chile, and I don't expect it to change.
- edgardcastro 15y ago
  Thats exactly what happens in Brazil. All phones MUST be sold unlocked but they lock you in with contracts in order to get cheaper phones. However if you choose to buy a "fully unlocked" phone, the prices have skyrocketed. (We have the most expensive iPhone worldwide, 16GB 4S = 1.2K dollars).
- daliusd 15y ago
  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.

fijal 15y ago

Same in South Africa

casca 15y ago

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.

Shorel 15y ago

It's the same in Colombia now. And you can keep your phone number even if you switch network providers.

rmc 15y ago
Keeping your phone number (aka number portability) does wonders for allowing people to change networks and allowing competition.