Vodafone NZ locking handsets

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#127458 1-May-2008 08:52

mikal: pretty confident its gonna be put into place.
No better time to do it considering the 3rd player is about to enter, Telecom going GSM end of yearish? Orcon are coming in and TelstraClear is back.
Wonder what they will charge the customer to unlock.
.

Vodafone in Ozz charged me A$72 to unlock a A$69 fone back in January.. The same fone sells here for NZ$99 unlocked on the Vodafone site.. Would have been $25 if I had waited 6 months so i suspect it will be simalar here or a %% of the retail fone price..

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allstarnz

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#127464 1-May-2008 09:38

the silence from Vodafone is deafening....

now that I read some more. I don't have a problem with the phones being SIM locked if they are cheaper or on contract. But the locking has to only be for a set period, for example 18 months or whatever. This is what most operators do in Oz I understand. Infinite locking is just nasty

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#127468 1-May-2008 09:45

allstarnz: the silence from Vodafone is deafening....

Since we haven't seen a reply here - hey they may be on an off site meeting - I've asked Vodafone through their channels.

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Zeekjam

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#127469 1-May-2008 09:45

Its gonna be 50 bucks to unlock. The phones that are locked will have a sticker on them from today. 0800 VF UNLOCK. They provide the unlock code.

BrentR

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#127491 1-May-2008 10:22

At the end of the day VFNZ is one of the FEW that haven't locked their handsets until now.

Expect it from the new players also.

Its the nature of the industry.

TinyTim

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#127518 1-May-2008 11:36

Jeffthechef: At the end of the day VFNZ is one of the FEW that haven't locked their handsets until now.

Expect it from the new players also.

Its the nature of the industry.

I don't think there are any issues on subsidised handsets (if they can be unlocked when the contract expires). It's when there is no subsidy and VFNZ has no financial interest in the handset there is an issue.

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#127528 1-May-2008 11:56

TinyTim:
Jeffthechef: At the end of the day VFNZ is one of the FEW that haven't locked their handsets until now.

Expect it from the new players also.

Its the nature of the industry.

I don't think there are any issues on subsidised handsets (if they can be unlocked when the contract expires). It's when there is no subsidy and VFNZ has no financial interest in the handset there is an issue.

Agreed. Means they will have to offer meaningful discounts for sign-ups to contract though (if this is fact, which of course it isn't at this point in time).

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#127549 1-May-2008 13:20

I suspect that the fones will cost the same price from the Vodafone stores as they were before (non subsidized) but now will be locked..

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Old3eyes

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#127556 1-May-2008 13:50

cokemaster: I agree mostly with Chiefie. However my opinion is:

If you buy a phone in a contract, at a discount it would be considered reasonable to lock the phone for the duration of the contract. After the contract has expired or has been canceled (with associated termination fee), the handset should be unlocked at no charge.

Remember that you are not leasing or renting the phones, you are buying them. If you buy them at full price - no unlocking should be required because the device should already be unlocked!

I heard this through other channels that some blackberries were already SIM locked, but took it with a grain of salt.

However - lets see what Paul has to say, its early days and I think its premature to judge Vodafone without official confirmation of whats happening...

Agreed. Therefore no prepaid phones should be locked since they aren't discounted.

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#127563 1-May-2008 13:57

It looks like it's official. More details coming out soon.

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#127569 1-May-2008 14:04

In amongst looking for more details Mauricio, can you find out what effect this will have for existing phones connecting to the network, will they have to be locked to continue using the VF network or are they ok as they are.

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#127573 1-May-2008 14:06

I doubt it. This involves BrightPoint, and probably they wouldn't be able to manage older models, imported models, etc so I believe is just Vodafone new handsets.

No information yet, everyone I contacted is out of VFNZ today for some meeting, and one person confirmed it but couldn't give me more details.

Waiting...

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#127584 1-May-2008 14:28

When we were new dealers for Optus, their prepaid phones were not locked but Vodafone had started to lock them.

So Optus started locking their prepaid phones as they were still cheaper than the RRP.

All phones we supplied on contract were not locked, even though they were ususally free on a thirty dollar or more plan... I could sell one of those phones at full RRP, they were not locked.

I figure, if I contract to a company for a subsidised phone on a 24/18 month contract, it shouldn't be locked full stop. If I cancell that contract I pay the cancellation fee, but keep the phone. Fair enough?

We sold Nokia 8210's free on a $30 a month plan but the customers agreed to pay an extra $200 or so cancellation fee as part of the agreement, as the cancellation fee was less than the $800-odd the phones were selling for back then.

Our prepaid phones were free to unlock after a six month period from actual activation date. But I was always worried about unlocking them, even though the activation centre ran me through it, because if I got it wrong I would have stuffed up the phone...

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#127594 1-May-2008 14:50

I don't see a reason for a locked phone, even if it is subsidised.

Let's look at it.

The phone is "subsidised" based on the length of the contract. In fact, the phones aren't subsidised at all, they are ammortised. The customer is paying the entire cost of the phone, just over the length of the contract.

The contract will have an early termination fee. Obviously. Otherwise it isn't a fixed-term contract.

Therefore, there is no reason to lock the handset, the contract termination clauses take care of everything. If the customer doesn't want to continue with the contract, they will be liable for the unpaid portion of the phone's cost.

There may be a reason - to prevent people (teens) from sim-swapping in order to have multiple accounts, the same way that they swap phones now.

But then, remember, the phone is ammortized in the contract. Vodafone has no expectation of additional revenue other than in the contract.

Vodafone may be considering subsidized prepaid phones, or subsidized phones without fixed-term contracts... However, this is a terrible idea (for Vodafone). It is very, very easy to see what happens when the retail value of the phone isn't covered by the cost of the contract. Just look at what happens to prepaid phones in the US. They are bought, unlocked and exported via EBay and other retailers. When T-Mobile launched in the UK they had serious stock issues because handsets were being purchased at retail and exported to Indonesia.

I guess it's a good thing that access TPM's aren't protected!

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jpollock

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#127612 1-May-2008 15:12

Let's play a game... It's called tit-for-tat.

Vodafone - Locked SIMs!
TNZ        - Commerce Commision!
CC          - Unlock the phones for a fee at the end of the contract.
Vodafone - Grump - NZ$50!
OpenCom- Free unlock! We'll Haxor your phone for you!
Vodafone - Hey! Hight Court!
HC          - ref: Copyright Act, Not a Protected TPM.
Vodafone - New phone models!
OpenCom- Multi-sim handset!
TNZ        - Free phone with contract!
Vodafone - LTE! Radio Change!
TNZ        - Me Too!, hey kids, free on-net SMS with contract!

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