A San Francisco entrepreneur is trying to get the Obama Administration to overturn an anticonsumer law that protects cell phone makers and phone companies.
Sina Khanifar, co-founder of opensignal, has collected more than 80,000 signatures on a White House petition calling for a restoration of the right to "unlock" a cell phone -- that is, to alter its programming so it can be used on a different carrier's network.
It is, Khanifar told the SFBG, a fairly simple issue: If you buy a cell phone, it ought to be yours to use as you wish -- and if that includes taking it apart, rewiring it, or changing the programming, that's your business.