Living in the Wild West of the Communications Age

Electronic freedom made the news twice in the last two weeks.

1) Cellphones — after they’re paid for — now can wander from company to company.

2) New rules adopted last week prevent Internet Service Providers from providing varying data speeds for different information.

The two developments show that we’re still living in the Wild West of both wired and wireless communications. They also show that the frontier era may be drawing to a close. Borders are being adjusted. Barbed wire fences go up, then are torn down. Stampedes still create trouble. Bandits roam the trails. When townspeople cry out, the local lawman calls together a posse. These two developments look a lot like civilization arriving on the frontier. The first equates to cattle barons agreeing to be nicer to the sodbusters before things get out of hand. The second is the town marshal drawing a line in the dirt.

Two weeks ago, the Federal Communications Commission said most mobile wireless service providers (cellphone companies) have met year-old voluntary commitments to allow devices to be unlocked. That means the devices, once they’re unlocked, can be used on competitors’ networks. Historically, a phone purchased from one company — AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, etc. — could not be used on any other network.

That’s no longer true.

A smartphone costs several hundred dollars. Many users buy a phone as part of a two-year service contract. A typical contract might amortize much of the cost of smartphone over the contract period. One deal offers an iPhone for $200 with a two-year commitment to that carrier. Buy the phone without a contract and you’ll pay $650.

The service companies make up the price difference on the hardware because they get that two-year commitment. The new unlocking rules won’t change that. Phones still under contract will remain locked. Once a contract ends, though, users can request that their phones be unlocked. That would allow them to switch to a different carrier while continuing to use the same piece of expensive hardware. The townspeople now can pack up their wagons and move to the next town, if they think that’s where they can find a better deal.

Many users upgrade to a new cellphone every couple of years. They won’t see any difference with this fresh state of affairs. But plenty of people keep using older phones after their contracts lapse. They now will have the freedom to wander among cell service companies like cowboys used to roam the Great Plains, hiring on at a different spread if they have an argument with the ranch foreman. Some fences do remain — not all hardware is compatible with all carriers’ networks. You’ll need to research the particular phone and the particular carrier.

Carriers theoretically will unlock customers’ phones within two days of receiving a request to do so. Each carrier’s process for unlocking is different. Some can be unlocked remotely, some can be unlocked by the user, some need to make a visit to the local shop.

The other bit of news that recently arrived on the telegraph involves the wired Internet.

The FCC last week voted to block Internet service providers from providing segregated fast and slow tracks for information on the Internet. The industry had planned to sell the right to move information faster. In effect, the action would have built parallel railroad tracks. Netflix would have paid to ride the diesel-powered streamliner. It could have sneered down from a gold-tasseled maroon velvet seat as it whizzed past the local hobbyist websites jouncing on hard wood benches being pulled behind an old steam locomotive.

The FCC vote means that all data will ride the same track. Everyone will get to Dodge City at the same time.

Opponents of net neutrality say the ruling means everyone eventually will be slowed. The bloated Netflix video files will fill all the seats on the train, they say, with piles of graphics-intensive HD luggage. Joe Local will need to wait for the next train. They say everyone will get to Dodge City after sunset and may miss the show at the saloon.

Neither side in the debate knows where this decision will lead the Internet. Each thinks they know the future. But this is still the Wild West. Unseen dramas remain to be created, played out and settled in the World Wide Web corral. Anything can happen.