Starting This Week, Wireless Carriers Must Unlock Your Phone

HughPickens.com writes Andrew Moore-Crispin reports that beginning today, as result of an agreement major wireless carriers made with FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in late 2013, wireless carriers in the US must unlock your phone as soon as a contract term is fulfilled if asked to do so unless a phone is connected in some way to an account that owes the carrier money. Carriers must also post unlocking policies on their websites (here are links for AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile), provide notice to customers when their devices are eligible for unlocking, respond to unlock requests within two business days, and unlock devices for deployed military personnel. So why unlock your phone? Unlocking a phone allows it to be used on any compatible network, regardless of carrier which could result in significant savings. Or you could go with an MVNO, stay on the same network, and pay much less for the same cellular service.

Comments

Useless

[Ark42]

With the whole 2-year contract things, most people can basically never have their phone unlocked for international use until it's time to upgrade anyway. Locking phones should just be illegal to begin with. If you sign a contract saying you are going to pay for service for 2 years, you have to pay for that service (or pay an ETF) regardless of if your phone is locked or not.

Re:Useless

[SeaFox]

With the whole 2-year contract things, most people can basically never have their phone unlocked for international use until it's time to upgrade anyway.

You say that like people have to upgrade their phone every two years. They could just, I dunno, be happy with what they have. Get a battery replacement if that's the issue you're having (mine personally last closer to 4-5 years). This whole need-to-upgrade thing is only a consumerism mentality.

At what cost?

[zentigger]

There is nothing in there stating that the carriers must unlock the device free of charge. We got burned by the same sad lack of foresight in Canada: The carrier must unlock your device, and they will actually do it right on the phone with you in most cases, but not until you have paid the $75 fee!