Comments on: How far should Congress go in stopping prepaid phone traffickers? http://www.prepaidreviews.com/blog/consumer-issues/how-far-should-congress-go-in-stopping-prepaid-phone-traffickers-35909/ Fri, 30 Jul 2010 06:34:41 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Tom Brown http://www.prepaidreviews.com/blog/consumer-issues/how-far-should-congress-go-in-stopping-prepaid-phone-traffickers-35909/comment-page-1/#comment-101610 Tom Brown Fri, 13 Nov 2009 07:12:19 +0000 http://www.prepaidreviews.com/blog/?p=2595#comment-101610 It saddens me that this sort of legislation can even be considered in our country. If a company chooses to sell something at a loss, it does so at their own risk. There is nothing to stop them from selling the phones at full price. There is no reason at all to allow any company to modify the First Sale Doctrine just to protect their bottom line. It saddens me that this sort of legislation can even be considered in our country. If a company chooses to sell something at a loss, it does so at their own risk. There is nothing to stop them from selling the phones at full price. There is no reason at all to allow any company to modify the First Sale Doctrine just to protect their bottom line.

]]> By: peter kent http://www.prepaidreviews.com/blog/consumer-issues/how-far-should-congress-go-in-stopping-prepaid-phone-traffickers-35909/comment-page-1/#comment-100115 peter kent Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:04:32 +0000 http://www.prepaidreviews.com/blog/?p=2595#comment-100115 This is a VERY important issue. It will determine if the US wireless industry in general moves forward or goes back to the stone ages. Companies that are KNOWN for allowing unlocked/flashed phones on their network like Metro, Cricket, Pocket, Revol, Frawg/Ntelos, Air Voice Gsm, Locus Gsm, Simple Mobile will probably not like this as it can affect their business more directly then it will companies who are against it. Especially Pocket , who owns the popular cdma flashing software server Houdinisoft (which Metroflash is based on). Flashing/unlocking is an industry on its own. Look at the intense iphone unlocking market alone. But if anti unlocking/flashing carriers like Tracfone/Virgin Mobile want to argue to take the rights away from Joe Citizen, they can take a flying leap. Their phones are so hard to unlock/flash that the average guy is wasting their time. It is the Traffickers they have troubles with. The carriers/handset makers will use the following statements: 1)Phone traffickers hurt their bottomline. True. 2)Terrorists can use prepaid phones. HELL, so they can use laptops too. What are you going to do. Lock down every laptop? Apple already used this argument to try and quash jailbreaking. Please. 3)Criminals. They can state that criminals sell stolen handsets and put them on other networks by unlocking and swapping sims/flashing cdma handsets. It has been done, but to associate the general public as the equivalent of terrorists, traffickers and criminals. That is not the point. There is a huge dfference from Joe Public wanting to unlock his handset to work on a new carrier then some theft ring that steals and rebrands thousands of handsets, some trafficker who buys and resells thousands of phones or some terrorist who uses an app to create mayhem. This is a sticky issue. Hopefully, the extension for the DMCA unlocking issue will be granted. If not , overnight a lot lot legal phone flashers and unlockers will become criminalized. This is a VERY important issue. It will determine if the US wireless industry in general moves forward or goes back to the stone ages. Companies that are KNOWN for allowing unlocked/flashed phones on their network like Metro, Cricket, Pocket, Revol, Frawg/Ntelos, Air Voice Gsm, Locus Gsm, Simple Mobile will probably not like this as it can affect their business more directly then it will companies who are against it. Especially Pocket , who owns the popular cdma flashing software server Houdinisoft (which Metroflash is based on).

Flashing/unlocking is an industry on its own. Look at the intense iphone unlocking market alone.

But if anti unlocking/flashing carriers like Tracfone/Virgin Mobile want to argue to take the rights away from Joe Citizen, they can take a flying leap.

Their phones are so hard to unlock/flash that the average guy is wasting their time. It is the Traffickers they have troubles with.

The carriers/handset makers will use the following statements:
1)Phone traffickers hurt their bottomline. True.
2)Terrorists can use prepaid phones. HELL, so they can use laptops too. What are you going to do. Lock down every laptop? Apple already used this argument to try and quash jailbreaking.
Please.

3)Criminals. They can state that criminals sell stolen handsets and put them on other networks by unlocking and swapping sims/flashing cdma handsets.

It has been done, but to associate the general public as the equivalent of terrorists, traffickers and criminals.

That is not the point. There is a huge dfference from Joe Public wanting to unlock his handset to work on a new carrier then some theft ring that steals and rebrands thousands of handsets, some trafficker who buys and resells thousands of phones or some terrorist who uses an app to create mayhem.

This is a sticky issue. Hopefully, the extension for the DMCA unlocking issue will be granted.

If not , overnight a lot lot legal phone flashers and unlockers will become criminalized.

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