A group of e-scrap companies and organizations recommended the FCC create a system in which donated phones can be checked for theft, and then unlocked to enable reuse. | Wk1003mike/Shutterstock
In response to a Federal Communications Commission request for comment on its new phone carrier unlocking rule, e-scrap industry members urged the agency to address a different kind of software locks that prevent reuse.
In a letter to the FCC, refurbishers and consumer advocates pointed out the detrimental effect of software locks on the secondary mobile phone market.
Software locks are intended to deter phone theft by making stolen devices unusable, the letter said, but also make “millions of donated or handed-down phones unusable, harming the environment and the used phone marketplace.”
The letter cites the example of The Wireless Alliance, an electronics recycling facility in Lafayette, Colorado. The facility “has over 30,000 phone and tablet donation programs across the country. They have received over 66,000 reusable iPhones that were activation locked between 2015 and 2019. These reusable phones were scrapped instead of being reused because of the activation lock.”
The letter adds that a quarter of all iPhones The Wireless Alliance received in 2018 were activation locked, “and many refurbishers report this proportion has grown significantly each year.”
The signees recommended the FCC create a system in which manufacturers and refurbishers can verify that donated phones had not been stolen and then have the activation lock lifted to enable reuse.
The letter was signed by representatives from the Public Interest Research Group, iFixit, Secure Resilient Future Foundation, the Wireless Alliance, Assistive Technology Exchange Network and others. The signees also expressed support for a uniform handset unlocking policy – the more widely known discussion about unlocking a device from its mobile carrier so it can be resold for use with any carrier.