Skip to main content

Hated cell phone unlocking ban may be lifted by FCC

cell phone unlocking ban lifted iphone unlock
Image used with permission by copyright holder

The contentious cell phone unlocking ban that went into effect this year may be on the ropes.

The Obama administration filed a petition (pdf) with the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday, asking the agency to create new rules that would allow cell phone users to unlock their handsets once their carrier contracts expire. If approved, wireless carriers would be required by law to unlock customers’ devices.

The petition, formally filed by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), requires that wireless carriers unlock devices that are paid in full, allowing users to move their device to another carrier. If enacted, the new FCC rules would also allow those who buy secondhand devices to unlock them via the original carrier. The unlocking ban would also be lifted for both cell phones and tablets that are locked to a specific carrier.

Currently, the law mandates that wireless customers may only unlock their devices with permission from the carrier. If a person unlocks a device without carrier permission, he or she would be in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA), which protects the software used by carriers to lock devices to their networks.

NTIA argues in the petition that allowing customers to unlock the devices they own would “increase competition,” and “plainly promote the public interest.”

The Librarian of Congress, which issues new rules every three years to allow for exemptions to the DMCA, decided to remove cell phone unlocking from the list of approved practices last year, where it sat since 2006. As of January, unlocking a device without wireless carrier approval has carried a potential maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $2,500 fine per violation.

The NTIA petition is the first concrete pushback by the Obama administration, which publicly opposed the cell phone unlocking ban in March following a successful “We The People” petition against the ban that received 114,000 signatures.

Sina Khanifar, an entrepreneur turned digital rights activist who launched the White House petition, says the NTIA petition is an important first step toward restoring consumer rights.

“This is a pretty significant move: the NTIA petitions to the FCC are relatively rare, happening only once every few years,” said Khanifar in an email to Digital Trends. “Not only may this trigger action by the FCC, but it also shows that the administration is committed to making cell phone unlocking legal and accessible for consumers.”

Khanifar adds that, even if the petition successfully lifts the ban, it does not solve all the problems. Older devices and those produced by smaller manufacturers may not be easily unlocked due to out-of-date or incomplete databases of unlock codes. Further, says Khanifar, the new rules would not require wireless carriers to unlock devices in a timely manner. “For example, AT&T takes up to two weeks to unlock an iPhone,” says Kahnifar. “For many customers who might be traveling abroad or consumers who’ve bought devices second hand, that can make the unlock procedure ineffective.”

Khanifar says further legislation is needed to meet the needs of all customers. A bill (pdf) from Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) that would meet most of these demands, the “Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act,” is currently moving though the House of Representatives.

The CTIA, which represents the wireless industry, supports the Goodlatte bill, but offered opaque opposition to the NTIA petition, warning in a statement that allowing for “bulk unlocking” may “harm consumers and facilitate the sale of stolen smartphones.”

Customers, meanwhile, appear undeterred by the unlocking ban. Reports from earlier this year found that cell phone unlocking in the U.S. had jumped 70 percent since the ban went into effect.

Editors' Recommendations

Andrew Couts
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Features Editor for Digital Trends, Andrew Couts covers a wide swath of consumer technology topics, with particular focus on…
Digital Trends Live: Partial lift of Huawei ban, Samsung foldable phone, more
episode 163 76eb26b4 9a5b 11e9 b82d cb52a89d5dff image hires 194614

On this episode of Digital Trends Live, host Greg Nibler and DT content specialist Chris DeGraw discuss the trending tech topics of the day, including a partial lift by the U.S. of the Huawei ban, the approach of Prime Day, adding noise to electric cars, Samsung’s rumored vertically foldable phone, Starlink's loss of control over three satellites, the Sony Walkman’s 40th anniversary, and more.

Christian Nascimento, vice president of product management for Comcast Business, discusses the future of the connected office, and how the Internet of Things and A.I. are set to change the way we do business.

Read more
Huawei ban partially lifted, but situation remains as confused as ever
Huawei P30 Pro review

The ban on U.S. companies selling products and services to Huawei has been partially lifted, but the situation remains just as confused as it was before. For example, Huawei will stay on the U.S.’s Entity List, but President Donald Trump has stated that “U.S. companies can sell their equipment to Huawei.” His words came during the G20 summit that took place in Japan over the weekend, and followed talks with China’s President Xi Jinping.

However, there is a caveat. U.S. companies can only supply Huawei, “provided there are no national security issues or problems,” according to Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council, who spoke about the announcement over the weekend. It seems more licenses will be granted to U.S. companies in the near future, and Kudlow suggested the products being sold to Huawei will be those that are widely available elsewhere.

Read more
Cell phone carriers now have the power to stop robocalls. When will they use it?
cell phone companies stop robocalls after fcc vote robo calls feat

The Federal Communications Commission voted Thursday to allow cell phone companies to block robocalls by default, but the nation's major carriers would not give specifics on if or when they would use the newfound power to protect their customers from what's become a daily annoyance.

After Thursday's vote, carriers can now block non-pre-approved numbers by default in order to protect elderly and other vulnerable individuals and to preserve the sanity of the rest of us. Calls from foreign countries in the middle of the night, deceptive caller IDs, and spoofing, where callers falsify area code information are not only disruptive, they encourage online telemarketing and scamming and are generally considered a dangerous waste of time.

Read more