There're also OpenBSC and OsmocomBB. However, even with all these projects there's still a pretty steep barrier to enter, which would disappear if open basebands in mobile phones would somehow become common.

Actually, knowing the state of security in cellular networks - especially old 2G and availability of "downgrade to 2G" techniques for newer ones - despite of being strong FLOSS and OH supporter I'm kinda glad that any tech-curious kid next door can't easily play with baseband in his mobile phone.

Sadly, there's also kind of people that won't care that it's illegal and with enough motivation will get all needed hardware, so we're not really protected either way.

But how's that on-topic? What "rooting a phone" has in common with "disabling LTE cap"? (whatever you mean by that)
There is no "secret cap switch" that allows one to get ultra-speed while downgrading the connection to everyone else in neighborhood. The connection is managed by the modem with its own, closed and cryptographically signed firmware, which uses (or at least tries to use) 3GPP standards. It's completely unrelated to any "jailbreaking" or "rooting" that was discussed here.

Actually, when mangling with modem, "saturating LTE" is something you'd worry about as a last thing. There are much better things to do when you for instance force downgrade to 2G on your neighbors - then you can apply all sorts of man-in-the-middle, eavesdropping, spoofing, DoS attacks and much more. Cellular networks are built with an assumption that only certified hardware can transmit on them - and a lot of modems and BTSes blindly trust that this is really the case (after all, when you start to transmit with modified modem, like TI Calypso with OsmocomBB, you're breaking the laws, cause modifying its firmware made its certification void).

However, as I said, that has nothing to do with the concept of "jailbreaking" or "rooting". Maybe you know somehow the physical layer of GSM, but for sure don't really know how it's all implemented in modern smartphones.

It's a myth and I've already seen a lot of people from US debunking it. And even if it would be somewhat true, there are people in US who use their Openmoko Neo Freerunners and Goldelico GTA04s, or who preordered their Neo900, which were never (and never will be) locked to anything other than operating frequency.

Buying a phone in the US without simlock is far from being impossible. It's just a bit harder - well, for some people the difference may be negligible, but then no regulation will help them...

You obviously have no idea how mobile internet connection works, don't you?

I wonder why the comments are filled with discussion about SIM locks and operators unlocking or not the devices after the end of contract. SIM-lock issue is no biggie, you can always simply buy the phone without telco as middleman.

What's more important there is that without this DMCA exception, you can't legally "jailbreak" your phone, install your own operating system or some "custom ROMs". Without this exception, jailbreaking an iPhone to install Cydia is illegal; breaking into bootloader of some non-unlockable by default Android phone is illegal as well.

Without this exception, in America you're not free to choose the software to run on your own hardware if only the producer doesn't want you to. Duh, even worse - it's actually illegal to try to. *This* is the clue of this issue, not any silly simlocks.

There's a reason why Neo900 is Neo900 and not Neo9.

It's enough to have a friend PC compromised, where you connected your iPhone once, a year ago, to recharge your battery and you don't even remember that now. When his computer is compromised, your phone becomes compromised as well and vulnerable to remote attacks.

That's a bit different story than what you described above.

to not buy*, of course.

You have a choice to buy iOS, Android, Windows or BlackBerry phones.

My Openmoko, SHR, Maemo, QtMoko and Debian based phones are a nice example. And they all work pretty well! It wasn't always the case, especially in their early days, but things have stabilized pretty well over time.

If you don't want any "crap", support projects like Neo900. You do have a choice.

Android and Windows Phone aren't the only alternatives out there. There are even devices and OSes that are supported entirely by FLOSS community, like OpenPhoenux. There is a choice, you just have to keep your eyes wide open.

True words. Sadly, people consider things that are trendy or have more raw power as more valuable, even if they don't really need that. When someone actually comes up with the device that you can control (instead of it controlling you), all he hears is "meh, too slow", "too expensive", "no capacitive screen? are you joking?"

You would expect people to be more sensible than that, especially in the post-Snowden era.

>I want these services off my phone.

How can you say that and yet still buy such devices? It's not like one doesn't have a choice...

With enough skill you can replace broken parts in "non-modular" mobile phones as well. That's not the problem.

Try to upgrade CPU on your laptop, let's say from Sandy Bridge to Haswell. Then we can talk.

Exactly. Replacement can be even done in current mobile phones, that's not a big issue.