It would be nice if they were forced to unlock your bootloader on request too. I would love to install Cyanogen mod on my Verizon Galaxy S4 but it is impossible to do so as the bootloader is completely locked down with no recourse.
Starting today, wireless carriers have to unlock your phone
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Re: Starting today, wireless carriers have to unlock your phone
#12Oh drag I'm so going to miss those sketchy website in foreign countries that were doing this for me prior.
Re: Starting today, wireless carriers have to unlock your phone
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
How it works in Canada: whether you pay off the phone entirely or not, pay 3 months in a row to the carrier you bought the locked phone from and then you can pay an additional $50+tax to have it unlocked. While it's nice the CRTC (our FCC basically) required this, it's terrible in that most carriers were either doing free/cheap unlocks after 3 months or $50 anytime after your device was paid for. Feels like we ended…
TELUS Mobility charges $35 so it's competitive. What isn't competitive, are the plans up here in Canada. We now pay more for less data than we did 3 years ago.
> We now pay more for less data than we did 3 years ago.
This is this to show all Canadians how much better out plans our than Verizon! Remember, vote "No" on Verizon come election day! /s
Re: Starting today, wireless carriers have to unlock your phone
#14I was reading about this upcoming milestone last week when attempting to unlock my old Sprint iPhone 5 for use on other domestic carriers. The consensus then was that it would apply only to Sprint devices sold after this date; an old Sprint iPhone 5 will continue to NOT work on other networks.
Re: Starting today, wireless carriers have to unlock your phone
#15From the AT&T page: > All the device’s service commitments and installment plans are completed, and all early termination fees are paid in full. I assume that means that if you got a "free" phone with a two year contract, you have to wait two years to unlock it. https://www.att.com/deviceunlock/#/
In my country (Mexico) there was a law for them to sell you unlocked phones/unlock them on request. The biggest company had you fill a stupid request and you couldn't fill it if you had your phone for less than X months, something which was not allowed by the law, that ceased after a series of complains to some branch of government made to "protect consumers" Anyway, I wonder if AT&T is kind of going with it and sayi…
> that ceased after a series of complains to some branch of government made to "protect consumers"
Why the "scare quotes"? It seems like consumers were actually protected by that scary government.
Re: Starting today, wireless carriers have to unlock your phone
#16I wonder how this will work with used phones purchased privately. I bought a phone on craigslist that was locked to T-Mobile. It wasn't blacklisted so I'm able to use it on T-Mobile, but I don't know if the contract was paid in full, the original account is in good standing, etc.
I think, because, the contract is between you and the carrier you should be okay. Even if you sell your phone to someone else you're still obligated to pay your bill or terminate early.
Carriers aren't stupid. They sell you a phone at a quarter of the price because you will pay nearly if not more than $100/mo. and they have recouped their loss by the end of April.
Re: Starting today, wireless carriers have to unlock your phone
#17This seems pretty vague about what "unlocking" really means. For example, I had a Verizon HTC 8X which was "unlocked" (as are all Verizon LTE phones), but you couldn't edit the MMS gateway. Some older Verizon Android phones were "unlocked" but with no APN editor, so you couldn't get data service.
Does anything about this code prevent carriers from playing the "it's unlocked but good luck configuring it" game?
Re: Starting today, wireless carriers have to unlock your phone
#18I was reading about this upcoming milestone last week when attempting to unlock my old Sprint iPhone 5 for use on other domestic carriers. The consensus then was that it would apply only to Sprint devices sold after this date; an old Sprint iPhone 5 will continue to NOT work on other networks.
As far as I know, that is an artifact of the hardware. The network compatibility of early (all?) iPhone 5s was divided across three models. Some can work on other networks, but not in other networks' LTE bands. Depends on your particular model and which network you're trying to move to.
http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/26/4150856/bringing-your-ipho...
Edit: better explanation at this link: http://www.wired.com/2012/09/iphone5-lte-model/
Re: Starting today, wireless carriers have to unlock your phone
#19Over the past week I've had no problems getting an unlock code from ATT for a GoPhone Nokia 635 bought on Black Friday for $40 (and never activated), and for a HTC One M7 bought outright from Best Buy last week for $150. It took a couple of days for each one but the unlock codes arrived in email after I submitted the info using their online form.
Re: Starting today, wireless carriers have to unlock your phone
#20I was reading about this upcoming milestone last week when attempting to unlock my old Sprint iPhone 5 for use on other domestic carriers. The consensus then was that it would apply only to Sprint devices sold after this date; an old Sprint iPhone 5 will continue to NOT work on other networks.
As far as I know, that is an artifact of the hardware. The network compatibility of early (all?) iPhone 5s was divided across three models. Some can work on other networks, but not in other networks' LTE bands. Depends on your particular model and which network you're trying to move to. http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/26/4150856/bringing-your-ipho... Edit: better explanation at this link: http://www.wired.com/2012/09/…
My Sprint iPhone 4S worked fine on CDMA networks in the US, and it worked fine while traveling internationally on GSM / non-CDMA networks.
There's something going on in the baseband firmware that rejects domestic carrier SIM cards, but still allows international carriers when an international unlock is granted.