A stern letter from the European Commission has gone out to dozens of wireless operators and phone manufacturers in Europe about the use of SIM card locks.
“With this pressure, we are trying to head off any agreements or the establishment of such a standard,” said EC spokeswoman Ella Krucoff.
The locks are embedded in the Subscriber Identity Module cards used by subscribers of Europe’s Global System for Mobile communications networks.
The commission is worried that SIM locks are being used as a way to lock customers into a specific network, often without the customer’s knowledge.
Conceptually, European nations have promoted a single digital standard, GSM, so subscribers can roam freely through the European community. Problems have arisen because some European nations allow operators to subsidize phones, while other nations do not.
For instance, a European consumer could sign up for service in a nation like the United Kingdom, where phones are heavily subsidized, then take the phone into Belgium to use, where phones are expensive to purchase.
Operators argue that the SIM lock, if used properly, helps prevent fraud by shutting down the phone when it is roaming inappropriately. Cellular operator Vodafone Group plc of the United Kingdom said it is not using the SIM lock, but would not like to see the technology banned because it has that useful fraud purpose.
U.K. operator Orange plc remarked, “The commission needs to be supplied with further information regarding the U.K. market as SIM lock technology is vital to security measures.”
The commission said its anti-trust authorities have been investigating the matter and found that 17 operators in eight member states have expressed an interest in SIM locks. Some locks are being manufactured, the commission said.
The U.K. office of Motorola Inc. said the locks are requested by the operator, and are not something promoted by manufacturers. Nokia Mobile Phones said it will follow commission regulations in the matter, and referred to improper use of the lock as a “technology-based loyalty scheme.”
Not only do the locks violate EU anti-trust and competition regulations, the commission said, but agreements between companies to create lock systems weren’t passed through the commission, as regulations require.
The European Telecommunications Standards Institute has been informed by the commission of the EU position, with the goal of making sure that a SIM lock standard is not approved.
“This [SIM lock] system would partition the market along national lines instead of allowing a pan-European system,” Krucoff said. “It has been deemed anti-competitive. This is an early warning.”
Currently, the 15 members of the EU are Greece, Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, Netherlands, Denmark, Great Britain, Ireland, Austria, Finland, Sweden and Germany.
