U.S. Said to Investigate AT&T and Verizon Over Wireless Collusion Claim

[rgMekanic]

According to an article on the New York TImes, the Justice Department has opened an antitrust investigation into AT&T, Verizon, and the G.S.M.A. The investigation is said to be into potential coordination by the companies to thwart eSIM technology. eSIM technology would allow users to switch wireless providers remotely without having to change the SIM card. The investigation was opened about five months ago when at least one device maker, and one wireless carrier filed formal complaints with the Justice Department.

Honestly the accusations don't surprise me at all. Hopefully the Justice Department will step up and end this, as well as other anti-consumer practices.

AT&T and Verizon face accusations that they colluded with the G.S.M.A. to try to establish standards that would allow them to lock a device to their network even if it had eSIM technology.

 

[dandirk]

While yay.. if this is true...

eSIM isn't the biggest barrier, as replacing sim cards is pretty easy. Its the custom roms and locked devices and custom models that drives me up the wall.

 

[Chunder]

Just do what some other nations have done/plan to do. Nationalize the service. All on a unified network with companies paying to maintain/upgrade the network based on customer base. America was supposedly considering this for the 5G rollout... but apparently the corporatist in the "drained the swamp" Trump administration "convinced" Trump to change his mind at the last second.

 

[[21CW]killerofall]

 

[Croak]

E-SIM makes it harder to have "burner" phones too, or burner SIMs, anyway. That's appealing to governments, for a variety of reasons. Just sayin'.

 

[Uvaman2]

E-SIM makes it harder to have "burner" phones too, or burner SIMs, anyway. That's appealing to governments, for a variety of reasons. Just sayin'.

i thought the imei was know by the network anyway.