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The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is proposing to implement a 60-day unlocking period that will apply to all mobile carriers, as mobile carriers are growing frustrated with their varying phone unlocking policies, which is bad for consumers.
The industry's “confusing and disparate mobile phone unlocking policies” mean that “some consumers can unlock their phones with relative ease, while others face significant barriers,” Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said at the FCC meeting yesterday. “It also means that certain carriers are subject to mandatory unlocking requirements, while others are free to dictate their own requirements. This asymmetry is bad for both consumers and competition.”
The FCC is “proposing a uniform 60-day unlocking policy” so that “consumers can choose the carrier that offers them the best value,” Starks said. Unlocking a phone allows it to be used on another carrier's network, as long as the phone is compatible.
The FCC approved the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) by a 5-0 vote, beginning a public comment period that could lead to a final rule. A draft of the NPRM said the FCC “proposes[s] to require all mobile wireless service providers to unlock their devices 60 days after a consumer's device is activated with the provider, unless the provider determines within the 60-day period that the device was acquired through fraud.”
T-Mobile prepaid imposes 365-day blocking
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said the FCC has imposed unlocking requirements in spectrum auctions and the Justice Department has imposed them as a condition of a merger, but that “there are still restrictions on consumers who want to unlock their phones.”
“You bought your phone, you should be able to take it to any carrier you want,” Rosenworcel said. “Some carriers already operate this way. Others don't. In fact, some recently extended the time their customers have to wait to unlock their device by as much as 100 percent.”
Rosenworcel was apparently referring to a prepaid brand offered by T-Mobile. The draft NPRM noted that “T-Mobile recently extended the lock-up period for one of its brands, Metro by T-Mobile, from 180 days to 365 days.” The 365-day rule brought Metro in line with other T-Mobile prepaid phones that already came with the one-year lock-up. We've reached out to T-Mobile and will update this article if they respond.
A merger condition imposed on T-Mobile's purchase of Sprint requires it to unlock only prepaid phones within a year. T-Mobile has different unlocking policies for prepaid and postpaid phones. For postpaid devices, T-Mobile says it will unlock phones that have been active for at least 40 days, but only if an associated financing or lease agreement has been paid in full.
Exactly how the FCC's proposed rules will apply to phones that haven't been paid off has yet to be determined. The FCC will “solicit comment on how our proposal might affect wireless carriers' incentive and ability to continue to offer discounts on handsets, particularly in connection with extended payment plans, and lower prices for minimum term plans.”
One question posed in the draft NPRM suggests that the FCC could require unlocking once a consumer on a device payment plan makes the first payment. The FCC asked:
Or should we require service providers to unlock handsets after a period shorter or longer than 60 days? For example, should we require all handsets to be unlocked by default upon activation? Or should we require all handsets to be unlocked after the end of the handset return period or after the first payment on the handset has been processed? Would a standardized time period of a certain number of days be easier to implement and enforce than non-standardized time periods based on return periods or billing cycles? What is the minimum time period service providers need to protect themselves from handset fraud? Short of locking handsets, are there other ways service providers can protect themselves from handset fraud that would allow the Commission to ban handset locking altogether?
