Working Assets, a wireless, long distance, and credit card company that gives a portion of user charges to "progressive organizations working for peace, human rights, economic justice, education, and the environment," has released a petition that pledges signatories to boycott Apple's iPhone because it runs only on AT&T's network.
The cell carriers' practice of forcing manufacturers to lock their phones onto one network or another is, of course, lame. But as far as carriers go, Working Assets claims AT&T was the worst possible choice for the iPhone, because the company allowed the NSA to build a secret room in its San Francisco switching center for the purpose of wiretapping American citizens without getting warrants to do so and opposes net neutrality. Apple's vibe feels very much the opposite of this, for whatever reasons, which is probably why Working Assets launched the petition.
Steve Jobs had enough power and/or charm to get the record labels to sell their music online for a uniform 99 cents, but altering cell carriers' entrenched behavior could probably be even tougher, should Jobs be moved to act by the petition.
Oh well, there's always openmoko...
(on tech blorge; via boingboing; image from the eff)
