Banning locked cellphones a simpler, better approach to unlocking issue

[Commentary] With everyone from President Barack Obama to tea party-affiliated conservative groups to liberal leaning consumer interest organizations in favor of consumers having the right to unlock their phones, the modest and temporary nature of a House bill is simply astonishing. And it makes me wonder why policymakers aren't pushing for a simpler, permanent and much more consumer friendly solution -- a ban on the locking of cellphones in the first place.

Those who have championed the right to unlock devices make the powerful and reasonable argument that because consumers own these devices, they ought to be able to use them as they wish, as long as what they're doing is legal. There's nothing illegal or illegitimate about switching carriers or using a cellphone sold in the U.S. overseas, so why should an arguably misapplied provision of copyright law stand in the way of such activities? Consumers can use their laptops on any Internet service they want; why can't they have the same freedom with their smartphones? The Federal Communications Commission, which regulates the wireless carriers, should simply ban the locking of devices. The FCC could take that action using its current authority; it wouldn't need an act of Congress. And it would have legitimate reasons for doing so. Not only would the action explicitly enshrine a position the agency supports, it also would promote competition, one of the agency's core missions.