I’m not clear on why I can’t use it. (I mean other that “it’s turned off”) The argument seems to amount to “you don’t want to”. I’m sure that’s not a reason to prevent me from using it.
> "What Americans really want is the ability to stream, download and customize music playlists to meet their personal preferences," Carpenter said
The carriers who get to decide (for some reason) if the hardware inside your phone gets turned on are also in the business of selling a directly competing product: bandwidth, especially for streaming.