Some Thoughts on Smartphone Region Locking
by Joshua Ho on October 7, 2013 2:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Samsung
- Mobile
- Laptops
- galaxy note 3
Recently, reports of Samsung region locking the Note 3 came out via Clove UK, which posted on its blog that the Note 3 would be completely unable to use a SIM card from a carrier outside of the region, and would not ship any Note 3 devices with a region lock outside of Europe.
Of course, while unprecedented in the smartphone industry, this sort of business has been happening for a very long time in the automobile industry, which has effectively banned grey importing to the US. While that isn't common knowledge, some may know that the Skyline GT-R is effectively banned from the US, which is a direct result of a ban on grey imports. The reason for all of this was a push by Mercedes-Benz USA to protect its dealer network and its own margins. In short, the story behind all of this is that grey imports were cutting into profit margins, as importers could easily take advantage of fluctuating exchange rates, and when all was said and done, going through an importer could net thousands of dollars in savings, all of which was effectively taken from the OEM. As a result, MBUSA and a coalition of other OEMs successful lobbied Congress to pass laws that made grey importing effectively impossible, which completely killed that industry.
While there are other possible justifications for region locking devices, looking to the past, it is evident that this move is done for similar reasons, albeit implemented at the software levels rather than enforced by law. While at first such a move threatened to have severe blowback due to the lockout of foreign SIMs for those traveling outside of the region intended for use, Samsung moved quickly to quell such fears, stating that the lock would only be for initial activation and that any region locked device would be able to be unlocked by a regional service center, however it seems that based upon multiple user reports, unlocked devices in certain regions have been completely locked out from using foreign SIMs. Recent information suggests that this lock is also shipping on many other unlocked devices that we're manufactured after July 2013, and such locks may arrive via OTA update for some devices. Due to their enormous marketshare and mindshare, Samsung is best placed to execute such a strategy, and stands to greatly increase margins from this move.
Even though Samsung is the first to do this in the smartphone industry, it is hard to say that such a move would not be pushed by other OEMs, as all would stand to profit from such region locking. While the automotive industry achieved this through legislation, it seems that smartphone OEMs are well-positioned to implement such features in software. While initial SIM locks would be easily bypassed by resellers, forcing the need to acquire an unlock code from a service center in the correct region would be extremely effective at killing grey market imports in the smartphone market, especially if the lock flag were in a partition with signature checks enforced like many carrier locks. It remains to be seen, however, whether the smartphone OEM would move in such a direction. While the automobile industry is nothing to be emulated, it is possible that the smartphone industry will follow in its footsteps.
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Kvaern - Wednesday, October 9, 2013 - link
Samsung has been the new Japan for quite a while now.r3loaded - Monday, October 7, 2013 - link
Disgusting. Grey market imports exist in the first place due to the existence of an untapped market that the OEM has failed to address for whatever reason. If you buy something outright, it is your right to use it as you see fit for whatever purpose.Samsung have become too arrogant for their own good and it's about time we avoided their gimmicky, plasticky products with restrictions locking down how and where you can use them.
Krysto - Monday, October 7, 2013 - link
So what you're saying is that it's all because of greed, and so their carrier friends have as little competition on retail pricing as possible.No thanks, Samsung. I'll never buy a device from you again. Is it me or is Samsung getting increasingly greedier lately?
meacupla - Monday, October 7, 2013 - link
Erm, this has been happening in Japan for a while now.au KDDI iphone 4S is simlocked to au sim cards only, which makes it completely useless outside of Japan, even though it is an international phone.
JoshHo - Monday, October 7, 2013 - link
Ah, that's true, but that's a carrier lock, not a region lock applied to an unlocked international device.meacupla - Monday, October 7, 2013 - link
Actually, au.KDDI sim lock accomplishes the same thing region locking does.You are forced to use the carrier you bought it from, rather than a local one at your destination
That means very expensive roaming charges if you are outside Japan.
All other iphone 4S models will accept a different sim card, as long as you put in an IMEI number, but not au.KDDI's.
JoshHo - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link
I understand that some carriers are especially difficult in regards to post-contract unlocking, but that's a different issue. This is a new type of SIM lock that is generally only found on unlocked devices that restricts usage to within a region unless unlocked for global use with a code issued by OEM.For now, it seems that Samsung is going that route, which would make a lot of sense, but is much more difficult for the end user than the originally announced model that only needs initial activation with a regional SIM card.
xdrol - Monday, October 7, 2013 - link
What's the fuzz? You are quite unlikely to use a US device in Europe or the other way around due to network differences... Reading Samsung's semi-official statements, the issue of not being able to use bad SIMs feels like a bug rather than an actual ban. ("the regional sim card lock will not prevent customers from using the device abroad or using local sim cards, provided that the sim card used upon starting up the device is from [sic] a European sim card")Also, were Samsung ban people to use an import Samsung device, then.. less people would buy stuff from them, what's the deal in this?
fic2 - Monday, October 7, 2013 - link
You obviously don't know what you are talking about. Plenty of people from the US travel to Europe and use their "US device" while in Europe. I am one of them. Used a Nokia 621 while in Europe this summer. Quite a few (probably most) sim phones can be used in Europe if they are unlocked from the US network. TMobile unlocked my gf's 621 so we could use it in Europe while we were there. Also, it occurs the other way around - plenty of European people successfully use their SIM phones while they are visiting the U.S. including several people that I work with.xdrol - Monday, October 7, 2013 - link
Read again. That scenario should be allowed as normal. You just need to fire up the device with a correct SIM, but should be able to switch SIMs after. (If not, that's not a direct ban, just a bug, that happens even with SIM from correct zone.)The 'probably most phones' you are talking about is by the way just a fraction of all devices, and even those are probably restricted to GSM, no 3G, check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UMTS_frequency_bands#... and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-UTRA#Deployments_by... there are ZERO overlapping between EU and US frequencies. (Good luck using that for data, and not carve your face off in the meanwhile.)
The device in the article, the EU version of Galaxy Note 3 supports only AT&T's 2G/3G and Sprint's LTE network, and only on a select frequencies (thus it sees partial coverage) as far as I can tell. I don't blame Samsung trying to stop people buying it in US, then getting complaints about a 'not working' device.