iPhone popularity makes it to Congress

July 12, 2007

Honestly, I’m surprised, and maybe I shouldn’t be. I found this story over at Arstechnica:

As pretty much anyone with a mobile phone in the US knows, mobile carriers don’t have particularly consumer-friendly policies these days. Two particularly frustrating examples are high early-termination fees and the practice of locking phones, both in terms of carrier and in terms of functionality. The iPhone is subject to both of these, since the device is locked to the AT&T network and the contract includes a $175 early-termination fee. And while carrier-unlocked phones probably won’t be coming from Apple for some time, the good news is that the iPhone is shaking things up and is causing Congress to take a closer look at wireless practices.

One word comes to mind. Duh!! This has been the case for years now, so why all the concern about the iPhone’s cancellation fee and the iPhone’s lock-in? All American GSM providers sell locked phones and all American wireless providers have some sort of cancellation fee. I honestly don’t know what makes the iPhone special and I guess it doesn’t matter. If congress can change these common practices by ALL carriers, then maybe we’ll be better off.