* Posts by derek h

4 publicly visible posts • joined 28 Sep 2013

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 region-locking saga CLEAR AS MUD

derek h

Third locked region - Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Pakistan

There now seems to be a third home region lock identified (see legal notice posted at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=46011608&postcount=569) for the latest Samsung phones.

The countries in this third region as:

"UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Yemen, Turkey, Morocco, Western Shara, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Iran, Saudia Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt."

[NB: UAE consists of: Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm al-Quwain.]

The other two region locks already identified so far are:

1. European region

"EU/EEA, Switzerland and the following Non-EEA countries Albania, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (F.Y.R.O.M), Monaco, Montenegro, San Marino, Serbia and Vatican City)"

[NB: I expect reference to "EU/EEA" is intending to mean: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Icelan, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lichtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.]

2. Americas region

"The North, South and Central Americas and the Caribbean."

derek h

Re: Is this why?

As the UK and Germany are both countries within the EU, the region lock on a European region Note 3 in your example should have no impact. A SIM issued by an operator in either the UK or Germany should suffice equally well to activate the phone.

Your point is very relevant though if, as say a Russian resident from outside the defined European region, you ordered a Note 3 from amazon.de without arranging its activation first with a SIM issued by an operator within the European region countries listed on the legal notice. Two possibilites seem relevant:

- If you have first arranged for it to be activated with a SIM issued by an operator within the European region (whether in Germany, UK, ireland, Monaco etc etc) and amazon.de then delivered the activated phone to you in Russia, the region lock might still prevent you using it with a SIM issued by an operator based in Russia (as that operator is not in the European region countries listed on the legal notice). The success of this route ultimately depends on whether the region lock really turns out to block (or not to block) other SIMs issued outside the European region which you wish to use in the phone after its initial activation.

- Another option may be to ship the phone from Germany to you in Russia without activation at all. And then go to a local Samsung service centre in Russia to have the restriction removed. Apparently they may do this and presumably thereby change the home region of the region lock.

However, this begs the question as to the purpose of the region lock in the first place if, as in the above example, the region lock does not in practice prevent grey imports to countries outside the European or US home region. An alternate possible explanation for its purpose might be to allow the manufacturer to cause well-off phone owners from the European (or US) region travelling outside their particular home region only to be able to use SIMs in their phones issued by networks in countries outside their home region if the network is approved by Samsung and an exception for that approved network is embedded in the software implementing the region lock that would otherwise block networks in such countries. The European (or US) owners could then find themselves only able to use their Samsung phone outside their home region with certain network carriers (pre-approved/not blocked by Samsung) which carriers might be very grateful for less competition to provide local SIMs to such travellers.

Hopefully this is not a purpose of the region lock and the region lock will be clarified by Samsung Global not to apply following the very first activation of the phone, if at all.

derek h

EU and US competition issues?

The EU and US competition issues could be relevant to explore if the region lock is not formally confirmed to be anything other than a one-time activation test.

Question if a region lock is less about restricting grey/parallel imports into countries outside out of the Europe/US (cheap imports into the US/Europe might arguably be expected to be more of an issue!) and more about leveraging the ability of the phone manufacturer to lock out certain carriers based in countries outside the region in which the phone was sold, while not blocking access to any carrier within the region where the product was sold. Such a lock-out could presumably have significant value to a manufacturer with a material or dominant market share - follow the money?

If the carriers not based in region complain about the region lock in a court in the local jurisdiction/region where product sold, then hand on heart the manufacturer could argue that:

- it was not engaging in anti-competitive behaviour in that jurisdiction as the region lock did not restrict any carrier at all in that region from having its SIM used in that product; and

- anti-competitive behaviour affecting a completely different region of the world is not something a local court in the region where the product was sold would have any jurisdiction to deal with - courts can only deal with their own local laws.

On the other hand if disadvantaged carriers complain in their own region about the terms on which a product is being sold in a completely different region that may be something which its local courts feel is outside of their own jurisdiction as the offending sale is to a consumer in a totally different region by a person in that different region on terms agreed between that consumer and seller.

Meanwhile, the manufacturer might argue that consumers buying product suffer no damage in being limited in choice of carrier outside home region as they were expressly warned about compatibility issues for SIMs outside the local region in advance of buying the phone (or, potentially/hypothetically in case of Kitkat, downloading the software) and accepted the condition.

I genuinely hope that this region lock idea of Samsung is a single use test and there is nothing more to it. However, until there is real clarity on the issue I guess there has got to be the chance that the corporate policy to install the region lock in all if not most of its key mobile products including existing ones which wish to upgrade to Kitkat, might have a more commercial, consumer unfriendly motive.

derek h

KitKat, grey areas and clear English

Speaking to Samsung UK this afternoon:

- the region lock will apparently be included in the forthcoming Kitkat upgrade to be rolled out next month and thereby be installed in any existing Samsung devices which upgrade even if, as many will be, they are currently without a region lock.

- the effect of the region lock following the activation of any European Note 3 with a SIM issued by a telco operator in the European region was a "grey area" still under discussion, notwithstanding reported comments from other European Samsung offices.

- a statement from Samsung at some point might be released on its website about this matter but in the meanwhile I was advised that I should not buy an unlocked Note 3 if worried by the region lock until sufficient clarification was given.

The Samsung UK representative who had taken the time to call me back this Friday afternoon was impressively frank but could not give any further clarity pending instructions from senior Samsung management. Please would Mr J.K. Shin take charge of this and arrange for a proper clarification in clear English of the application of the region lock, and the extent to which the terms of the legal notice accompanying new Note 3s are misleading. Mr Shin seems a decent and intelligent individual and his credibility will surely be further improved if he can arrange a swift and coordinated confirmation from Samsung Global and its European offices that an unlocked note 3 will never have any MCC whitelist or similar restriction in force following its first ever use.