Lock-in prevents landfill

By at 10:38 am Friday, Oct 31

The AP has run a good piece on cellphone recycling that is marred by an excitingly stupid lede about the likelihood that number-portability will cause many of us to throw away our phones once we get better deals under the new competitive rules, and that this will be an environmental disaster. Lock-in prevents landfill. Cheez.
The new rule that takes effect Nov. 24 allowing users to change wireless (news - web sites) companies without losing their phone numbers is expected to motivate as many as 30 million people to switch within the first year.

Those who do will need to buy new phones. That's because even carriers that use the same network technologies employ different encryption.

Link

Cory Doctorow

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