People have long accused Verizon and AT&T of abusing their market share to the detriment of the overall wireless market. But the two may have crossed a legal line: The Justice Department has reportedly launched an investigation into alleged collusion by Verizon and AT&T to make switching carriers more difficult than necessary.
People have long accused Verizon and AT&T of abusing their market share to the detriment of the overall wireless market. But the two may have crossed a legal line: The Justice Department has reportedly launched an investigation into alleged collusion by Verizon and AT&T to make switching carriers more difficult than necessary.
According to The New York Times, the issue at hand is over eSIM technology, which replaces the traditional SIM card in your phone with an embedded chip that can be reconfigured without needing to physically remove it from the device. The technology was first announced in 2016 and has since found its way into many mainstream devices including Google’s Pixel 2,Apple’s iPhone X, Microsoft’s Surface Pro, and others.
However, the DOJ is now reportedly investigating claims that Verizon, AT&T, and potentially even the GSMA, a group that represents wireless carriers worldwide, illegally collaborated to establish standards that would allow carriers to lock a device to a certain network, even if the phone was using an eSIM.
This would make the hassle of switching carriers even more annoying, while also stifling competition and potentially discouraging innovation. Combined, AT&T and Verizon control 70 percent of the US wireless market.
Sources who spoke with the Times said the investigation was prompted after formal complaints were filed to the Justice Department by at least one device maker and one wireless carrier. By allegedly pushing the GSMA to allow eSIMs to be locked to a single carrier, AT&T and Verizon would have essentially disabled one of the most important functions of eSIM technology.
Locking down phones is a consumer-unfriendly policy that carriers often try to justify by saying the practice helps cuts down on theft and fraud. It was only after pressure from the Federal Communications Commission in 2013 that carriers agreed to unlock phones so they could be used on a competitor’s network—but only after the device had been fully paid off.
Hopefully, the investigation by the Justice Department will help prevent history from repeating itself, because dealing with wireless carriers is already enough of a pain, and trying to switch carriers really shouldn’t be as hard as it is.
We have reached out to Verizon and AT&T for comment and will update when we receive a response.
[ The New York Times]
