What the Cellphone Unlocking Law Means for You

A bill that will make it legal to unlock your cellphone is headed for U.S. President Barack Obama's desk. This is great news, but what does it mean for you? Will it actually impact how you can use your devices?

The ability to "unlock" your cellphone or tablet — that is, provision the phone to run on a different carrier network — gained visibility in early 2013, after a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) exemption that made the practice legal in the U.S. expired.

That means that under U.S. law, it is now illegal to unlock a cellphone without a carrier's permission. Consumers, advocacy groups and even the White House came out in favor of legalizing phone unlocking. The wireless industry, which was initially against reinstating the copyright exemption, even had a change of heart, of sorts.

Last week, a piece of bipartisan legislation, dubbed the "Unlocking Consumer and Wireless Competition Act," was unanimously approved by both the House and the Senate. This means that consumers will once again be able to legally unlock their cellphones without running afoul of copyright laws.

The law will only restore the exemption until the Librarian of Congress makes its next ruling(which is scheduled to happen sometime in 2015), but as activist Sina Khanifar notes, this is the first time Congress has ever acted to reverse an exemption.

Alright, so you'll soon be able to unlock your phone again. What does this mean for you, the regular phone user?

Will this make my phone work on all carriers?
Can my unlocked phone work overseas?
Can I unlock my tablet too?
What does this mean for bulk unlockers?
Will we have to do this whole exemption dance again?

A common misconception is that unlocking a cellphone will make it compatible with all other cellular networks. In other words, if I unlock my Verizon handset, I can use it on AT&T or Sprint.

The reality is a lot more complicated. In the United States, wireless carries have historically run on two types of technology: GSM or CDMA. AT&T and T-Mobile use GSM for the underpinnings of its network, while Verizon and Sprint use CDMA. The two technologies are incompatible with one another, which means that many (though not all) CDMA phones will not work on a GSM network.

With CDMA devices, even being unlocked doesn't guarantee a Sprint phone will work on Verizon's network. The networks still have to provision different phones and in most cases, a Sprint phone won't be provisioned to run on Verizon's voice network and vice versa.

But let's assume you have a "world phone" — that is, a phone that has both CDMA and GSM support. Does that mean your Verizon device can now be used on AT&T? The answer sadly, is, "it depends."

Some phones, such as Verizon's iPhone, are also unlocked to work on GSM networks. That means that you can use your Verizon iPhone 5S on AT&T and T-Mobile, and you'll even get LTE speeds. If you have a Verizon iPhone 5, however, the unlocked phone will only get HSPA+ speeds on T-Mobile and AT&T.

An AT&T or T-Mobile phone, unlocked or not, will not work on Sprint. Some AT&T and T-Mobile unlocked phones will work on Verizon's LTE network, but that's only for data, not for voice.

We should also point out that because LTE has so many different bands, you can't guarantee that an LTE device made for one network will work on LTE on another network. Phone makers are starting to build in support for more bands into their devices, but it's far from a perfect match.

If you're an iPhone user, you can find out what networks your phone will work on by looking atthis chart from MacRumors.

As long as it is a "world phone," the answer is yes. Unlike the United States, the rest of the world has almost entirely standardized on GSM. That means that as long as your Verizon or Sprint phone is designated a "world phone," it can be unlocked and used in Europe and many other countries.

Keep in mind, however, that just because you can pop in a SIM card and get voice or SMS service doesn't mean you can get LTE data service on your phone overseas. LTE support is based on what band is supported by your phone and the carrier in a specific country. More often than not, your phone will get HSPA+ at best if you are trying to use it someplace else.

It's also important to know that China uses a different standard than the rest of the world. If you're going to China, plan on just using your phone on Wi-Fi and maybe on 2G. Plan to buy a local replacement if it's going to be a long stay.

The cellphone unlock bill only covers phones. The bill did say, however, that the Librarian of Congress should consider whether other wireless devices, like tablets, are also eligible for unlocking.

With tablets, the unlocking scenario is actually less complex, if only because we're only talking about data networks, Increasingly, modern tablets in the United States are sold to work on T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon networks for LTE (and Verizon models can fall-back to CDMA for 3G data).

Early supporters of the cellphone unlock movement expressed their displeasure with an early version of the bill, which denied legal protections to "bulk unlockers" — that is, companies and services designed for unlocking your phone. This group also includes phone recyclers and resellers.

As a result, the language concerning "bulk unlockers" was removed for the bill. That means that bulk unlocking services or recyclers or resellers, should feel free to unlock phones just like anyone else.

Yes, but hopefully it won't take as long next time. The Library of Congress meets again in 2015 to decide on the next set of DMCA exemptions. With Congress and the Senate approving the bill — and with the overwhelming public support — we can only hope it will be passed again.

There is talk to bring a bill forward that would permanently exempt cellphone unlocking from the DMCA, in order to avoid this every two-years song and dance.

Mashable.com

Google and Verizon Battle Over Mobile Payments

It always gets ugly when there’s money involved.
Just days before Google’s next flagship smartphone launch, Google and Verizon are locked in a public battle over mobile payments, with both companies vying for a foothold in the fledgling mobile e-commerce arena.
The issue in question: Whether Google’s e-commerce app — dubbed Google Wallet — should appear on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the biggest Android smartphone launch of 2011. Google says Verizon doesn’t want Wallet on the phone.
“Verizon asked us not to include this functionality in the product,” a Google spokesman told Wired in an e-mail late Monday evening.
Unfortunately for Google, it doesn’t have much time to negotiate, as rumor says the phone is set to debut in the United States this Friday, Dec. 9, on Verizon’s 4G LTE network.
One of the phone’s marquee features is its NFC (near-field communication) technology, which allows the phone to communicate with other NFC-enabled devices and terminals. In theory, NFC could allow you to pay for coffee at a nearby Peet’s, or swap information between two NFC-capable phones. Google Wallet, then, is Google’s e-commerce app that takes advantage of NFC technology, allowing users to buy small retail items with a simple wave of their phones.
Verizon’s anti-Wallet stance is a big problem for Google, as Google needs as many devices running Wallet as it can get. As of today, only the Sprint-carried Nexus S 4G is capable of using the Google Wallet app. This means that out of the 200-plus devices running the Android operating system, only one can run Wallet.
In its effort to push Wallet to mainstream consumers, Google already faces significant barriers — infrastructure installation, retail employee training, weak consumer awareness — so this latest diss from Verizon only makes its job harder.
So why would Verizon want to keep Wallet off of its phones?
On Tuesday morning, Verizon cried concerns about the way Wallet handles security. In an e-mail, a Verizon spokesman told Wired.com the following:
Recent reports that Verizon is blocking Google Wallet on our devices are false. Verizon does not block applications.
Google Wallet does not simply access the operating system and basic hardware of our phones like thousands of other applications. Instead, in order to work as architected by Google, Google Wallet needs to be integrated into a new, secure and proprietary hardware element in our phones.
We are continuing our commercial discussions with Google on this issue.
Verizon’s statements are true. Part of what makes Google Wallet a safe payments app is its integration with so-called “secure element” hardware, essentially a chip that houses your credit card credentials on the phone itself.
Nonetheless, for Verizon to raise concerns about app implementation this late in the game seems disingenuous. “Sprint didn’t seem to balk at the security, and they’ve had it up and running on phones for some time now,” said Greg Sterling, owner of Sterling Market Consulting and a long-time contributor to Search Engine Land. “It seems like it could be a delaying tactic.”
Verizon already has skin in the mobile payments game, so it may indeed be acting to slow Wallet’s adoption on a second handset. Last year, three out of the four major telcos in the U.S. — Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile — came together to form Isis, a carrier-backed version of a digital wallet just like Google’s.
Currently, Sprint is the only major carrier to eschew Isis support — just like it’s the only carrier to offer a phone with Google Wallet. Naturally, if carriers decide to prop up Isis by knocking down Google Wallet, it’s feasible that Wallet will also be barred in upcoming phones carried by AT&T and T-Mobile.
An Isis spokesman declined to comment, referring Wired.com to Verizon’s previous statement.
“This is a question of Verizon not wanting Google to beat them to the punch,” said Simon Buckingham, CEO of mobile app store Appitalism Inc., in an interview. “It’s a power struggle over a major land grab for U.S. territory.”
Isis lacks a number of features Google Wallet offers — not the least of which includes an actual released product. Wallet has been on the market for months now, and launched with the support of Mastercard and a significant number of retail partners. Google is also working with Visa, AmEx and others to bring more card support to the app. Further, Google Wallet works in conjunction with Google Offers, the company’s Groupon-like daily deals program.
Conversely, Isis hasn’t launched, and has yet to gain the support of any major credit card companies. But the carriers have something that Google doesn’t have: Millions of credit card-backed customer accounts. With an initiative like Isis, mobile customers could ostensibly funnel their mobile wallet purchases to their monthly phone bills. That means no new credit card numbers to register, and no significant barriers to entry. It’s a fast track into mobile e-commerce.
But blocking Wallet in an effort to prop up Isis may also be short-sighted.
“It reeks of anti-competitive behavior,” said Sterling. “These days, the moment anyone does anything anti-competitive, you see class-action lawsuits and even possible congressional consequences.”
Regardless of how this plays out, it’s an annoying sticking point for Google’s mobile payments app. Google has made it more than clear that NFC-based economics is the way of the future, and the company will continue to push handset manufacturers into creating devices with NFC chips inside.
Wired.com

Chrome OS tablet from HTC reported to ship in November

 An HTC tablet running Google's Chrome operating system will be sold by Verizon Wireless in late November, according to an unnamed source cited by the blog Downloadsquad.
The blog's source specifically said that the tablet will appear on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and the traditional start of the holiday shopping season. The blog said the tablet would probably be heavily subsidized by Verizon to compete against the Apple iPad.
HTC and Verizon could not be reached for comment.
The blog also speculated that the HTC tablet would have plenty of popular features, in keeping with HTC's Nexus One smartphone tradition. Those include a 1280-by-720 multitouch display for the tablet, 2GB of RAM, and a minimum of 32GB of storage, the blog said.
But the big interest value would be Chrome OS, since Google has mostly made a splash with Android for smartphones, and a number of Android tablets are expected in the coming months from Samsung and others. Samsung is reported to be showing a new Android 2.2 tablet at a consumer electronics show in Berlin early in September.

FierceWireless reported in July that an HTC spokesman had noted widespread interest in tablets and said HTC would participate if it could find a way to offer "clear value and differentiate ourselves."

Chrome was introduced as an operating system to power netbooks, not tablets, although some analysts have noted that Chrome could work in both.

Computerworld

Skype on Verizon: A Big Deal or Not?

Verizon Wireless and Skype say they’re teaming to bring Skype to nine BlackBerry and Android phones on the Verizon network.

I'm not sure if this is just an intriguing partnership or a major moment in phone history. But at the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona, Verizon Wireless and Skype announced that they're working together to bring Skype to nine BlackBerry and Android phones on the Verizon network. A version of Skype Mobile will be available next month, permitting free Skype-to-Skype calls, chatting, and Skype Out calls to any phone number, including cheap international rates. And it'll all be done using flat-rate data plans rather than phone minutes.
There's nothing inherently historic about Skype being available on phones -- it's on the iPhone (albeit over Wi-Fi only right now) and I first used the service on a Windows Mobile handset years ago. (Only briefly, though -- it taxed the phone to the breaking point, and voice quality was pretty miserable.)

But a major carrier such as Verizon not only grudgingly permitting Skype but buddying up with it as a selling point for its phones is an interesting twist. I look forward to trying Skype Mobile on my Droid when it's available. And I have a few questions in the meantime...
Is there any integration with the phones' standard phone features? Say, access to the phone address book from within Skype? Or-dare I wish for it-the ability to route all calls through Skype, as Google's Google Voice app permits on BlackBerry and Android handsets? (Yes, I know that Google Voice isn't comparable to Skype-it uses phone minutes, and Skype doesn't)
How well does it work for incoming calls? Skype Mobile can run in the background, and I presume that you can use a Skypein phone number to permit people to dial a standard phone number and reach you in Skype. But does all this work smoothly enough that you could comfortably use Skype to take calls rather than the phone's standard phone features?
How's the quality? As good as a standard cell call? Better?
Are there any gotchas? On paper, this whole deal sounds...suspiciously enticing. The better Skype Mobile works, the more likely it is that lots of Verizon customers will do most (or all?) of their calling using it. Even if Skype cut Verizon in on any revenue it made, that couldn't be good for Verizon's bottom line.

More thoughts once the app's available.
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