Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
Back in June, the FCC proposed a significant rule change that would require carriers to unlock all phones within 60 days of activation. At the time, the FCC was seeking public comment on the proposal, with plans to vote on whether to pursue the issue in early July. Since then, the proposal has been unanimously approved by the five-member commission, and the plan marches forward. To be clear, this doesn’t mean a new unlock policy is happening anytime soon; it just means that the FCC will continue to actively pursue these regulatory changes. Unsurprisingly, AT&T and T-Mobile have both spoken up against the change.
AT&T has indicated that the rule changes could negatively affect its ability to offer affordable devices, though that’s about the extent of its opposition so far. T-Mobile has been considerably more vocal. The “Uncarrier” has not only made it clear that this change could negatively impact their device payment plans and other services, but it has also gone so far as to imply that the change might cause the carrier to give up on payment plans altogether (as first reported by Broadband Breakfast). Furthermore, the carrier questions whether the FCC even has the authorization to pursue such a change.
[...] You might notice that I’ve yet to mention Verizon, and that’s for good reason. Big Red is the only major carrier vocally in support of the change. As you likely guessed, the reason isn’t out of the kindness of their hearts.
Back in 2008, the FCC reached an agreement with Verizon regarding the use of the 700MHz spectrum, with the carrier agreeing to prompt device unlocks. In 2019, the FCC agreed to implement a 60-day unlocking window to help Verizon combat potential fraud around its payment plans and special deal pricing. In other words, Verizon is already abiding by this change, so it loses nothing by supporting it—in fact, it might even have something to gain.
Right now, many carriers, both prepaid and postpaid, offer free trials through eSIM. While AT&T and T-Mobile limit these kinds of trials due to their current unlocking policies, it’s much easier to try out a different network while still keeping your Verizon phone and subscription. This means a Verizon customer has a greater chance to shop for other networks than those on another carrier, increasing their chances of being lured away by a competitor. If all carriers adhere to the same 60-day window, the playing field becomes level.
(Score: 3, Touché) by drussell on Thursday September 26, @04:54PM (8 children)
Here in Canada, it has been illegal for a carrier to sell you a "locked-to-carrier" phone since 2017.
If you still have a locked phone, all you need to do is call the carrier it is locked to and they must unlock it for free.
As it should be.
Your country somehow seems to be repeatedly remaining ridiculous. Stop the madness!! 🙄
(Score: 4, Interesting) by aafcac on Thursday September 26, @05:18PM (1 child)
I'm not sure it's that big of a deal. I personally don't buy phones from the carrier, so they don't have any way of locking it. I think the last time I had any issues was with AT&T where they think they have property rights over my devices and can install whatever they like without my permission. I switched shortly after because I had rooted my phone to install better backup software and they updated over top of that without my permission. The fora were mostly a bunch of AT&T simps trying to gaslight me into thinking that it's OK for the carrier to sell me something, but retain control over it.
As far as this goes, it doesn't really make any sense to me to permit the phones to be locked, but only for 60 days, that's more or less the worst of all worlds. The phone is still locked to the carrier for a couple months, but doesn't really do anything to discourage people from avoiding any ETFs associated with buying the phone on installment through the carrier.
(Score: 3, Informative) by drussell on Thursday September 26, @05:53PM
You can still buy a phone here from the carrier on an installment plan, and you can still sign up for a contract service price plan if you wish, whether bundled with hardware or not. They can still word their contract however they wish as far as paying a cancellation fee for their service if you cancel your service contract early and you'd have to pay out the purchase price of the phone if you're paying for the hardware in installments. They just can't prohibit you from actually using that hardware on another carrier. They used to do that all the time even once your contract was up and you'd paid for your hardware in full! That is now rightly illegal!
If you try to sign up for a $0-down hardware plan (or any hardware payment plan) and then abscond with the hardware, try to not pay them for it, it IS a stolen phone and they will mark it as such in the stolen-phone database(s)... No other carrier is supposed to just go rogue and allow obviously stolen phones on their network, so it is useless until it is paid for. (I guess you can always use it as a wi-fi connected mini-tablet, but they could still take you to court for stealing the hardware.) It's really a non-issue.
Some of the carriers offering the various styles of "hardware-included" plans are now even more upfront about their actual pricing, often even showing the amount remaining on the "buy out the hardware" part each month in addition to your service fee. Transparency! What a concept!!
I personally, like you, also would never buy a phone on an installment plan through the carrier. I use whatever hardware I wish, the carriers always offer a "bring your own device" option in their pricing plan offerings instead of paying some inflated installment (often paying about double for the phone) pricing for the phone... People who do that are generally not financially astute, obviously.
I do agree that allowing them to be locked for 60 days in pointless, and just adds needless headache all around.
Just ban carrier locking altogether and be done with the nonsense.
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Thursday September 26, @05:35PM
I'll second the "you fools" bit, but for a somewhat different reason.
Dear Wife purchased a phone from a carrier, locked of course. It's an attractive bargain because the phone appears to cost a hundred odd dollars less than the same phone from Motorola. But, she pays double the monthly fees that I pay, so she loses in the long run. People just don't do the math, to see what the contract is going to cost in the long run. I have already saved more than the hundred dollar difference, and I'll probably save another 200 to 300 dollars before the phone (battery, really) wears out, or become obsolete.
Just buy an unlocked phone to start with. Pay the cash, then choose which carrier you're going to use. True, it may be a bit painful to make that initial outlay if you insist on top-of-the-line equipment, but you'll still save in the long run.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 26, @07:31PM (3 children)
I have heard stories that sometimes the unlock codes can be somewhat troublesome to get for old phones if there is no active service with the carrier in question. In that case I suppose you could work around it by temporarily signing up with the carrier.
Nevertheless, I've done this twice (both times w/ Rogers) on old long-unused phones without too much trouble. The first time was probably around 2017 timeframe when the policy was pretty new and there was no problem. The second time (probably around 2022) took two calls because the first agent was incompetent but it still got done.
(Score: 5, Informative) by drussell on Thursday September 26, @09:42PM (2 children)
Nonsense!
If they locked it, they are required by law to unlock it. AS IT SHOULD BE!!
You may need a SIM card from the locked provider, depending on the phone model and unlock procedure in order for the unlock code they give you to actually work, but the SIM does not need to be active with the carrier! If the original carrier's SIM is missing from the phone you're trying to unlock, you just need to figure out which network it was on originally and throw in any ol' SIM from that provider and then initiate the unlock sequence for that phone. I've done it on dozens of phones without a single issue. Customer service is generally even rather cheerful and helpful if you seem to know what you're talking about and the whole procedure rarely takes more than 5 minutes to undo the silly locking nonsense. AS IT SHOULD BE!!
I keep old, expired SIMs from Rogers, Telus and Bell in my little phone service kit just for that purpose. You figure out what carrier it was on, call them up, unlock the phone, slap in whatever new provider you want to go to's new, active SIM card and you're golden. (e-SIM wasn't a thing during the locked-out time in Canada, so that's totally a non-issue.)
Easy, peasy.
You do NOT need to actually subscribe to the services of the old provider to unlock. You just might need one of their SIM cards, even if it is not actually active on an account. The unlock procedure doesn't need network access, just access to the encryption keys on their particular species of SIM card...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Reziac on Friday September 27, @03:13AM (1 child)
Some years back, Virgin Mobile ate my little carrier, and their update locked my bought-and-paid-for self-owned phone. It took an FCC complaint to regain control of my hardware. And no, I'm not tired of bitching about it, why do you ask? Their customer disservice wasn't even as good as their policies.
Good tip on old SIMs.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 3, Informative) by drussell on Friday September 27, @02:31PM
Indeed.
In Canada, there is an entity called the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS) that acts as an ombudsman for the consumer WRT the mobile carriers and the rules created by the CRTC (the governing body, similar to your FCC.) This CCTS is who you would complain to if your situation had taken place in Canada.
Consumer rights for mobile in Canada:
https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/phone/mobile/clients.htm [crtc.gc.ca]
...and the wireless code from 2013, updated and expanded in 2017:
https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/phone/mobile/code.htm [crtc.gc.ca]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Lester on Thursday September 26, @08:23PM
Neither in Spain. I think neither in Europe.
Things got much better after that.