Verizon Wants Trump To Kill Phone Unlocking. Consumer Groups Say That Will Drag U.S. Wireless Back To The Stone Age

With the Trump administration openly destroying whatever is left of U.S. federal corporate oversight, regulatory independence, and consumer protection standards, Verizon sees an opportunity. It’s asking the Trump FCC to roll back longstanding phone unlocking requirements, something consumer groups say will drag America back to the dark ages of cell phone enshittification.

Longtime Techdirt readers probably recall that Verizon used to be utterly obnoxious when it came to absolutely everything about using your mobile phone. Just the clumsiest, lamest, ham-fisted bullshit.

For example, the company used to ban customers from using third-party apps (including basics like GPS), forcing you to use extremely shitty Verizon VCast alternatives that rarely worked. 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.

The goal was always to limit your choice, hamper open competition, and dominate the app, hardware, and software markets, which Verizon couldn’t do organically or competently because, as a giant shitty government-pampered telecom monopoly, it was incapable of innovating. The result was just a parade of hot garbage, shitty apps, its own terrible app store, and a mountain of weird restrictions and fees.

Two things changed all that. One, back in 2008 when Verizon acquired spectrum with requirements that users be allowed to use the devices of their choice. And two, as part of merger conditions 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, it’s much easier to use pretty much any app of your choice (within the admitted confines of sometimes erratic app store approval policies). It’s often trivial to bring the phone of your choice to the Verizon network, and to swap your phone and number whenever you’d like, usually with minimal penalty or annoying long-term contracts.

But the golden age of Trump corruption offers a chance for Verizon to roll back the clock. Verizon recently issued a filing with the FCC falsely claiming that they simply must be allowed to unfairly lock down mobile devices, because doing anything else harms competition and helps dastardly criminals:

“The Unlocking Rule applies only to particular providers—mainly Verizon—and distorts the marketplace in a critical US industry. The rule has resulted in unintended consequences that harm consumers, competition, and Verizon, while propping up international criminal organizations that profit from fraud, including device trafficking of subsidized devices from the United States“

Verizon, which quickly folded to Trump administration demands that it wasn’t sexist or racist enough in exchange for Frontier merger approval, has a long history of being completely full of shit on issues relating to consumer rights. And they’re particularly full of shit here.

Consumer group Public Knowledge filed a reply at the FCC debunking Verizon’s claims this week, noting that phone unlocking has been a massive boon to cell phone and app innovation, and that the company’s claims of rampant fraud are completely baseless:

“Fraud already exists across the industry regardless of lock duration. The only argument Verizon can make is that the risk of fraud is marginally greater because unlocked
devices are more valuable in the trafficking market. But it presents no data showing how much more profitable it is for traffickers to target Verizon over other providers, or that the delta in device value resulting from unlock status is large enough to drive targeting decisions.”

And while Verizon is right that U.S. unlocking requirements are inconsistent across carriers, that’s an argument for greater FCC oversight, not less. The Biden FCC was just finalizing a new proposal that would have required that all wireless providers unlock devices within 60 days of purchase. Everybody but major wireless carriers supported the change.

Not only is that effort dead now thanks to Trump’s election and Verizon lobbying, 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, in which he’s destroying consumer protection standards under the pretense of government efficiency.

As Public Knowledge notes, Verizon’s interest here is entirely self-serving, and the impact would be terrible for the wireless market, customers, and the environment:

“Phone locking distorts market competition, raises switching costs, and contributes to
unnecessary e-waste. It impedes consumers’ ability to take full advantage of the devices they
already own, forces them to purchase new phones unnecessarily, and reduces their freedom to choose more affordable or higher-quality service options.”

It’s not clear if Verizon will get what it wants. Verizon lobbyists have won every other major consumer rights battle in the modern cell phone era (FCC autonomy, net neutrality, privacy oversight, broadband discrimination reforms) so it’s not any sort of stretch to believe they’ll win this fight as well. Still, you can always reach out to FCC boss Brendan Carr to see if he’s going to wimp out here as well.