Unlocked: T-Mobile headed to court over fees, phones

We are clearly of the belief that all cell phone companies are evil. However, we feel that some are less evil than others. Take T-Mobile for instance. Yeah, we hate them because of their nature, but we hate them a whole lot less than AT&T and Verizon. So it pains us to see them being used as an example…but not too much. The California Supreme Court ruled that the lawsuit brought against T-Mobile, which challenges its early termination fees and locked phones, will move forward. This could seriously change the telecommunications landscape in the U.S.

The plaintiffs also seek an order requiring T-Mobile to disclose the existence and effect of the software locks it places on the phones it sells, and to offer to unlock the handsets so consumers can switch to a different carrier without buying a new phone. … If the T-Mobile lawsuit is successful, the outcome could require cell phone carriers, at least in California, to unlock cell phones upon a customer’s request.

This case really does have legs. T-Mobile tried to get a state trial judge and a state appeals court to trash the suit, and they all said no. Now the Supreme Court agrees. There has to be something here. Basically, T-Mobile’s only support in this case is its user agreement, signed when someone begins service. However, if you’ll remember back this summer, that agreement was ruled “unconscionable and unenforceable”. Uh oh. Looks like this might be a long winter for T-Mobile. And if the consumers do win in this and T-Mobile is forced to alter its early termination fees and phone locking practice, what does it mean for the rest of the telecoms? Verizon, Sprint, and Alltel can hide behind the curtain of CDMA for a while. It would be far tougher to force them to use unlocked phones than the GSM crew. So AT&T could be in for it, too. Because if the plaintiffs win, you’ll definitely be seeing AT&T in California court sometime soon. [Wired]]]>