Big Bad Carriers Taking Aim At Android Army Rooting
If you own an Android and have rooted or run a custom kernel in an effort to maximize that delicious slab of hardware you’re holding in your mits beware. Word has dropped recently of the carriers taking aim square at you because, well, you’re playing with their money. Carriers aim to sell you new handsets especially Android users who seem to flock at the next greatest thing from a month to month basis.
Here is the gist of the article: “In a nutshell: Verizon and other major carriers have worked together to develop ways to track rooted phones and phones running custom Kernels. Once a phone is identified, new firmware currently being developed will allow the phone to be disabled. The customer is then on the hook for paying the ETF.”
This leads me to believe that the reason AT&T customers recently got the cease order concerning tethering and applicable charges if not is a manifestation of the carrier security program. Looks like the movement just got a lot harder for developers who are seeking only to improve their user experience because they are lumped in with those who simply want to steal resources. Too bad because the talent and passion coming from the developer community is awe inspiring.
Darn you carriers!!!!!!
I wonder if/when this came to pass the effect it might have on Android’s market push. I’m curious what you have to say so drop a comment and let your voice be heard.
Source Link 1: Hard OCP
Full Source Link: Manufacturers Unite To End Rooting
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This has the be the most ridiculous idea I’ve ever heard of. Who cares if you root your phone. You still agreed to a 2 year agreement, it’s not like you not paying them for voice/data time used.
Maybe if carriers would offer a vanilla or carrier version of their phones people wouldn’t need to root their devices in order to get rid of stupid crap they load the phone up with.
Even tracking people who use the tethering option that aren’t paying for it is ludicris to me since you are paying for an limited or unlimited amount of data per month, who cares how you use it. If I download 2GB of data a month on my phone or on my laptop using my phone as the modem, it’s still 2GB worth of data!
How does this fit with the FCC rules that require the carriers to allow any legal device on their network? Not to mention, how are the carriers legally allowed to brick my device?
Also, where’s Simmons? This sounds like something perfect for one of his rants.
@Smitty009:
This has the be the most ridiculous idea I’ve ever heard of. Who cares if you root your phone. You still agreed to a 2 year agreement, it’s not like you not paying them for voice/data time used.
– How many times do people actually read what their phone contract states or even the TOS? Would it surprise you at all if there were any ‘reverse engineering’ clauses in there?
Maybe if carriers would offer a vanilla or carrier version of their phones people wouldn’t need to root their devices in order to get rid of stupid crap they load the phone up with.
– Agreed, but it would never happen. Three words that I learned while in retail hell that I think everyone will have to get used to with this carrier non-sense. “Value. Added. Services” In other words, to differentiate from other carriers carrying the same product, they put this shovelware on the phone.
Even tracking people who use the tethering option that aren’t paying for it is ludicris to me since you are paying for an limited or unlimited amount of data per month, who cares how you use it. If I download 2GB of data a month on my phone or on my laptop using my phone as the modem, it’s still 2GB worth of data!
– Amen, but, it matters to them because they sell those nice “MiFi” devices separately. Capitalism at it’s finest.
“Once a phone is identified, new firmware currently being developed will allow the phone to be disabled. The customer is then on the hook for paying the ETF.”
i highly doubt this means your device will be “bricked” more than likely your service is just shut off and you have to pay the ETF, but actually bricking your phone… doubt that
@sm0k3ydaband1t:
What’s the difference? You still can’t use your phone on a network that the FCC says you are legally allowed to use.
im sure some custom kernerls and roms are truly legal to have on your phone, but alot of these guys preload stuff into these roms that is actually a copyright infrigement, just small ones companys arent going to waste time and money pursuing legal action against, but copyright infrigement none the less. im not saying i agree, i will be rooting this damn atrix as soon as i can do it without a reasonable doubt that i wont brick my phone. and this “procedure” if you will would probably only be carried out under extreme circumstances. i dont think any of the major carriers want a class action on thier hands because of a sweeping action that wasnt well enough thought out. and when did anyone care what the FCC says, the FCC says 4G is greater than 100mbps… not even verizons LTE is going to touch that for at least another year or 2 minimum
I’m using a desire Z with Virtuous rom and the only reason I use it is because I dont want to deal with all the crapware that gets loaded on my phone. There’s a damn good reason people flash custom roms and that’s because people get burned from shit that verizon and other carriers pull.
i used to have a dumbphone on verizon and unknowningly (and unnotified) press the stupid “VCAST” button. i was charged 1.99 a month for a year for shit that i wasn’t being used. These awful carrier money sucking tactics should be illegal not the rooting of phone to debrand their crap. if they want to prevent root access, then they should allow us to remove their crapware as well as give us the original unmodified rom.