Monday, March 26, 2018

MEMORIES FROM THE PAST REGARDING Cell Phones


 Nokia 6235

The year was 2004 and I received a gift from someone on the street. The gift was a LOST/STOLEN/TRADED/RE-SOLD cell phone. It looked similar to the Nokia 6235, but it said Nukia and had a different series number. I looked through the gallery and on the sd card. The phone owners were from India and had vacation in Thailand, from which their destination was Las Vegas. Which is where they lost possession of their phone.

The funny thing about the Nukia phone is that I had to research it to get a charger for it. Back then the manufacturers of electronic cell phones and smart phones/pc phones, found it necessary to change the charger and battery size and volt for each new model they put out. Some put out 4-6 new models in a year and would have a different charger. Using the wrong charger would either fry the mother board or it wouldn't even charge the phone.

I found out that the United States put sanctions against China and other countries regarding counterfeit goods sold globally. https://elibrary.law.psu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1007&context=jlia . Thus all accessories for this product was not obtainable in the USA. The world sanctioned China for the Nukia counterfeit items, and chose London as the only distribution center for accessories, not accessible to Americans in the United States. The other funny factor about the phone, was that the SIM Card was from the Ethophian Telecommunication company, now Ethio Telecom. WOW A REAL LIVE GLOBAL PHONE, and yet it was still functionable and UNLOCKED.

I had a conversation with Motorola to find out the laws as far as they were concerned about LOCKED phones and Service Provider Lock phones. At anytime (as in the case of the phone call, where the third party purchased a unlocked Motorola Raza before it was released) any consumer can for the most part purchase a cell phone directly from the manufacturer except when sanctions are involved, such as Kyrocera (2002-2006) where some models are not allowed in the USA. For Kyrocera at that time, London was a great distribution hub, for all there models.  Motorola made it clear that they are in the business of manufacturing , not service providing. 

The service provider contracts are based on whether or not the provider can provide the service by which the phone is manufactured. If they are unable then the service provider is not provided the model. The phones are manufactured to be unlockable. If a service providers locks a phone through the service, then it is easy to get it unlock. By taking it to a unlocking service provider such as Boost Mobile, Metro PC, Cingular or Virgin Mobile. They will charge you a fee and unlock a phone.

Once a phone is reported lost/stolen, then it is no longer the property of the original consumer. Either they pay a deductible (usually $100-$150 which the major 4 service providers-who are 2 year contract providers) and the phone is replace if you purchased the insurance. If you didn't then you are offered a lesser quality phone to continue the service or you can pay for a new phone, or renew your contract for another 2 years. Nevertheless you receive a new phone. Thus who is legally able to lock a phone that is "MISSING" and has been replaced.

Between  2013-2014 I purchased a Norton Anti-theft protection for my laptop (reported stolen to the police) only to find out that they had change the application and could not provide that type of service. The following article explains some of the things that the Norton Security Anti-Theft use to let consumer do, as they tracked down their stolen/missing equipment, even after it may have been replaced. https://www.symantec.com/about/newsroom/press-releases/2011/symantec_1004_05
The following link explains what happen at the time and how maybe these type of security application where violating "JOHN DOES" seeming that the equipment was reported Lost/Stolen/Traded/Re-Sold. https://paulgoree.wordpress.com/2013/02/16/consumer-privacy-waiver/



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So now it seems that since there is a demand for unlock phones, and since it's easy to unlock a phone. The fact that some might re-program a phone so that access to the basic requirements -The Help/Troubleshooting Browser or Access to the internal settings, via the back down- is 
suspicious!  

Obama phones do not count, because of the New Deal (1935) https://paulgoree.wordpress.com/tag/safelink/







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