The CTIA has announced that an agreement has been reached with the FCC in regards to cell phone unlocking. With the top 5 carriers — Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon and US Cellular — all in agreement a new deal has been reached which brings some new rules and regulations to unify cell phone unlocking policies. Previously these regulations varied by carrier, and were not the easiest to understand but now that all changes.
In an attempt to make things more transparent and so that everyone would understand these 5 carriers have agreed to operate with the following 6 regulations in place.
- Disclosure. Each carrier will post on its website its clear, concise, and readily accessible policy on postpaid and prepaid mobile wireless device unlocking.
- Postpaid Unlocking Policy. Carriers, upon request, will unlock mobile wireless devices or provide the necessary information to unlock their devices for their customers and former customers in good standing and individual owners of eligible devices after the fulfillment of the applicable postpaid service contract, device financing plan or payment of an applicable early termination fee.
- Prepaid Unlocking Policy. Carriers, upon request, will unlock prepaid mobile wireless devices no later than one year after initial activation, consistent with reasonable time, payment or usage requirements.
- Notice. Carriers that lock devices will clearly notify customers that their devices are eligible for unlocking at the time when their devices are eligible for unlocking or automatically unlock devices remotely when devices are eligible for unlocking, without additional fee. Carriers reserve the right to charge non-customers/non-former-customers a reasonable fee for unlocking requests. Notice to prepaid customers may occur at point of sale, at the time of eligibility, or through a clear and concise statement of the policy on the carrier’s website
- Response Time. Within two business days after receiving a request, carriers will unlock eligible mobile wireless devices or initiate a request to the OEM to unlock the eligible device, or provide an explanation of why the device does not qualify for unlocking, or why the carrier reasonably needs additional time to process the request.
- Deployed Personnel Unlocking Policy. Carriers will unlock mobile wireless devices for deployed military personnel who are customers in good standing upon provision of deployment papers.
One of the big points here is that now the providers will notify people when they are eligible to have their devices unlocked, which is a huge win as most people currently have no idea when they are allowed to unlock their device free of charge. While this does not eliminate the barriers between the carriers and that not every device will work with every carrier, the uniform practices surrounding unlocking of mobile devices is definitely warmly welcomed by all.
