U.S. Cellular Supports Diverse Set of Initiatives Aimed at Cutting Device Theft

U.S. Cellular supports smartphone theft deterrence “via a diverse set of initiatives,” it said in a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in docket 14-143. “U.S. Cellular encourages all of our [operating system] or device partners to develop anti-theft capabilities, and in no way prohibits or restricts development of these capabilities through our requirements,” the carrier said. “Today, over 96 percent of our smartphone customer base is covered by solutions provided at no cost by our device or OS partners. We would welcome any efforts by our device or OS partners to have such functionality operational by default.”