Verizon anxious to lock your phone back down

From the «pay more for less shitty» department:
Title: Verizon Asks Trump Admin to Destroy All Popular Phone Unlocking Requirements
Author: admin@soylentnews.org
Date: Sat, 31 May 2025 05:37:00 +0000
Link: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=25/05/30/041203&from=rss

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story[1]:

If you’ve been around a while you might recall that Verizon used to be
utterly obnoxious when it came to absolutely everything about using your
mobile phone. Once upon a time, the company banned you from even using
third-party apps (including basics like GPS[2]), forcing you to use extremely
shitty Verizon apps. It also used to be absolutely horrendous when it came to
unlocking phones, switching carriers, and using the device of your choice on
the Verizon network.

Two things changed all that. One, back in 2008 when the company acquired
spectrum[3] that came with requirements[4] that users be allowed to use the
devices of their choice. And two, as part of merger conditions[5] affixed to
its 2021 acquisition of Tracfone. Thanks to those two events Verizon was
dragged, kicking and screaming, into a new era of openness that was of huge
benefit to the public.

Now, with the Trump administration openly destroying whatever’s left of U.S.
federal corporate oversight and consumer protection standards[6], Verizon
sees an opportunity. As Jon Brodkin at Ars Technica notes[7], Verizon’s
attempting to get the Trump administration to kill all unlocking
requirements, in a bid to drag everyone back to the dark ages of cellphone
use.

Verizon being Verizon, they can’t help but lie about it in a petition to the
Trump FCC, claiming that they simply must be allowed to unfairly lock down
mobile devices, because doing anything else harms competition and helps
criminals:

[...] These openness requirements are somewhat scattershot across carriers,
which is why the Biden FCC had been proposing a uniform rule that would have
required that all wireless providers unlock devices within 60 days of
purchase[8].

Not only is that effort dead now thanks to Trump’s election, but Verizon’s
pushing to eliminate all such requirements, driving progress violently
backward. Verizon’s hoping that such rollbacks can be part of FCC boss
Brendan Carr’s “Delete, Delete, Delete” deregulatory bonanza[9], in which
he’s destroying longstanding consumer protection standards under the pretense
of government efficiency.

Verizon even name drops Elon Musk’s DOGE efforts in their petition, insisting
that longstanding and popular consumer protection standards on wireless
devices are “the perfect example of the type of rule that the Commission
should eliminate as part of the Department of Government Efficiency’s
Deregulatory Initiative.”

Even if the rules aren’t destroyed by the Trump FCC, numerous recent Trump
court rulings and executive orders make it all but impossible for regulators
to enforce most consumer protection rules[6]. But Verizon, ever a fan of
crushing consumer protection standards and competition, wants to make doubly
sure.

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Original Submission[10]

Read more of this story[11] at SoylentNews.

Links:
[1]: https://www.techdirt.com/2025/05/28/verizon-asks-trump-admin-to-destroy-all-popular-phone-unlocking-requirements/ (link)
[2]: https://community.verizon.com/t5/Blackberry-Archive/Verizon-blocks-GPS-to-most-third-party-apps/td-p/59470 (link)
[3]: https://www.techdirt.com/2008/05/06/that-didnt-take-long-verizon-wireless-trying-to-get-out-of-open-spectrum-requirements/ (link)
[4]: https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/47/27.16 (link)
[5]: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-21-121A1.pdf (link)
[6]: https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/07/federal-consumer-protection-is-dead-the-fate-of-net-neutrality-warned-you-it-was-coming/ (link)
[7]: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/05/verizon-tries-to-get-out-of-merger-condition-requiring-it-to-unlock-phones/ (link)
[8]: https://www.techdirt.com/2024/07/26/fcc-votes-to-make-phone-unlocking-easier/ (link)
[9]: https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/27/under-cover-from-other-trumpy-bullshit-fccs-carr-quietly-starts-rubber-stamping-att-and-comcasts-policy-wishlist/ (link)
[10]: https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsubsubid=65837 (link)
[11]: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=25/05/30/041203&from=rss (link)