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posted by CoolHand on Friday June 16 2017, @08:15PM   Printer-friendly
from the freeing-the-great-white-north dept.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission will require all phones and other mobile devices to be sold unlocked. Existing devices must be unlocked for free upon request, starting December 1st:

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) today announced that as of December 1, 2017, all individual and small business wireless service customers will have the right to have their cellphones and other mobile devices unlocked free of charge upon request. In addition, all newly purchased devices must be provided unlocked from that day forward.

As well, updates to the trial period will allow customers who are unhappy with their service to cancel their contract within 15 days and return their device in near-new condition at no costs, as long as they have used less than half their monthly usage limits.

Definition of SIM locking and regulations by country.


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Nerdfest on Friday June 16 2017, @09:26PM (3 children)

    by Nerdfest (80) on Friday June 16 2017, @09:26PM (#526638)

    Next on their list, I'm hoping to get them to do something about some wireless subscribers starting to force people to buy vice plans if they want a data plan. Basically, no tablet plans without a phone plan. It's effectively tying services the same was as saying "you can't get out cable service unless you have a phone line with us as well." The CRTC currently thinks that wireless is somehow magically different than a cable or fibre connection.

    I use VOIP specifically so that I'm not at the mercy of the wireless providers and can move from one to the other without worrying about changing numbers, etc.

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by KGIII on Friday June 16 2017, @10:00PM (1 child)

    by KGIII (5261) on Friday June 16 2017, @10:00PM (#526651) Journal

    I would prefer unlocked bootloaders first. Right now, you buy the hardware and license the software. Without the software the device is useless. So, you never really have true ownership of the device. I want the freedom to modify, even without the source. I'd prefer the source, but that is unrealistic. So, I will take an unlocked bootloader. If nothing else, we can reverse engineer it and have the liberty to load our own software.

    --
    "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 17 2017, @01:28AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 17 2017, @01:28AM (#526728)

      The former two because of the GPL, and the latter because fuck proprietary drivers.

      I could care less about the userspace, but being unable to rebuild the necessary drivers to use a piece of hardware on a non-proprietary operating system is ludicrous in this day and age.

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by bob_super on Friday June 16 2017, @10:20PM

    by bob_super (1357) on Friday June 16 2017, @10:20PM (#526656)

    > force people to buy vice plans if they want a data plan

    Useful reminder: in Canada, it's not illegal to buy a vice plan without a date plan.