A six-eight week lock-in would give consumers a full billing cycle to notice a problem. It would also prevent thieves from doing an immediate switch, and thus substantially increasing the risk and cost of an operation. While I know nothing about Verizon's internal operations, I would be shocked if they could recover the cost of bringing a new account online in less than three months. I could buy a three-month lock-in. After that...NO.
I'm curious about people assuming that thefts would be armed. Most smart phones are only slightly larger than what is easily palmed.
So...sure they are corporate scum. Sure, the FCC is "industry friendly". But despite the despicable "exponentially" adverb in the press release, I don't see this as a completely invalid idea. Devil in the details, of course.