For decades there has been endless policy wrangling over whether “unlocking your phone” (removing restrictions allowing you to take the device with you to another carrier) should be allowed. Giant carriers have generally supported onerous phone locks because it hampers competition by making it harder to switch providers. Consumer rights groups and the public broadly support unlocked devices.

  • Wilzax@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    4 months ago

    Phones are also small computers, and while its wireless chipset may only be compatible with certain carriers, that doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t be allowed to install whatever I want on it.

      • Wilzax@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        4 months ago

        The antenna isn’t chipset agnostic? TIL. I normally work with radio transmitters for LoRa and Bluetooth where the antenna is just a wire connected to a radio chipset module so I assumed 4g/5g were the same

        • over_clox@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          4 months ago

          Yeah, I don’t think there are many models of phones with proprietary antennas, but there are, or at least were a couple models.