It will soon be easier, and hopefully less confusing, for consumers in the United States to unlock their cellphones. The CTIA, the industry trade group that represents the wireless industry, submitted a letter to the FCC on Thursday agreeing to adopt a "voluntary set of six principles for consumers' mobile phones and tablets."
The ability to "unlock" your cellphone or tablet — that is, provision the phone to run on a different carrier network — gained visibility in early 2013, after a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) exemption that made the practice legal in the U.S. expired.
See also: Inside the Fight to Legalize Cellphone Unlocking
Under U.S. law, it is now illegal to unlock a cellphone without a carrier's permission. Consumers, advocacy groups and even the White House have all come out in favor of legalizing phone unlocking. The holdouts include the wireless industry, whose carrier members have resisted calls to unlock phones without jumping through many hoops.
In November, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler took more direct action, sending a letter to the CTIA imploring the group to act voluntarily, lest the FCC regulate.
The CTIA responded Thursday agreeing to adopt a voluntary commitment to unlocking consumer cellphones. In a statement accompanying the letter, the CTIA said in part:
We are pleased to announce AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular and Verizon Wireless agreed to adopt a voluntary set of six principles for unlocking of consumers' mobile phones and tablets.
U.S. wireless carriers have agreed to six principles regarding unlocking cellphones and tablets.
Disclosure: Each carrier will have to explain its policy on unlocking clearly and concisely on its website.
Prepaid Unlocking Policy: Carriers will unlock prepaid mobile devices upon request, no later than one year after the initial activation.
Postpaid Unlocking Policy: Carriers will unlock or provide necessary information to unlock their devices to customers and former customers after the completion of a service contract, device financing plan or the payment of an early termination fee.
Notice: Carriers that lock devices have to notify customers that they are eligible to unlock their devices when eligibility occurs or will automatically unlock devices remotely when they are eligible.
Response Time: Carriers will unlock eligible devices within two business days of receiving a request.
Deployed Personnel Unlocking Policy: Carriers will unlock mobile devices for deployed military personnel for customers in good standing.
In other words, carriers will now agree to unlock your phone within two business days, provided your phone is fully paid without subsidy, or you've completed your service contract or paid an ETF. For prepaid phones, the carriers must unlock a phone if a customer requests it no later than one year after activation.
Sina Khanifar, a technology entrepreneur and one of the advocates leading a charge for congressional action to legalize unlocking, said in an email that the news is a positive step forward, but unfortunately, it's only a start:
A real solution to that problem needs to come from Congress and is relatively simple: people should be able to unlock the devices they've purchased if they wish, with or without carrier approval. It's a common-sense change to the law: if you've bought something you should be able to do whatever you want with it, whether it's modifying it, or unlocking it. You shouldn't need a massive corporation's permission.
As soon as the CTIA's unlocking letter is adopted by its bylaws, carriers will begin implementing these principals.
The entire letter to the FCC is embedded below.
Ctia Letter on Unlocking
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Image: Getty, AFP/Staff