• Senate Passes the Bill to Allow "Unlocking" Cellphones, Bill Moves to the House

    by
    Akshay Masand
    Published on 2014-07-17 05:36 PM
    7 Comments Comments


    Having an unlocked device, whether it’s tied to an active contract or agreement or not, has been an issue for quite some time. Recently there has been a bigger focus put on the effort from government officials. A new unlocking bill appears to be closer to reality than ever before as it moves past one stage and on to the next.

    Originally introduced in 2013, it’s been a slow movement towards being passed. While there have been many hang-ups and speed bumps, the majority of steps taken on the bill have been in the right direction, especially recently with language removed to make sure bulk unlockers aren’t left out of the loop as they were initially. According to The Hill, the bill has officially passed through the Senate after a recent vote. This means, the next step is for the bill to enter the House for a vote. The report quotes Patrick Leahy on why this bill was necessary.

    This straightforward restoring bill is about promoting consumer rights last year. “When consumers finish the terms of their contract, they should be able to keep their phones and make their own decision about which wireless provider to use.
    Getting an unlocked mobile device isn’t impossible but it certainly could be a lot easier at the same time, this is exactly what the bill is meant to address. If the law does get passed, then a customer will be allowed to get their device unlocked after a contract/agreement has expired without issue and be able to use that device on another network, after the contract expires. As it stands right now, the rules re different carrier to carrier and can even be determined by the very contract you sign. Moreover, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act prohibits the unlocking f any device that’s carrier-restricted.

    Have any of you had troubles unlocking a device recently?

    Source: The Hill
    This article was originally published in forum thread: Senate Passes the Bill to Allow "Unlocking" Cellphones, Bill Moves to the House started by Akshay Masand View original post
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    2. iPhone
    Comments 7 Comments
    1. DirkSwizzler's Avatar
      DirkSwizzler - 2014-07-17, 06:10 PM
      I doubt this will help me get my Sprint locked 4S unlocked for use in the United States.

      The amount of ******** their customer service team spew is infuriating. They bounce between "Here's an MSL code", "Your new carrier is responsible for unlocking", "The 4S hardware isn't capable of using U.S. GSM networks", "It's illegal for us to unlock your phone", "Call Apple to unlock", and probably a couple more lines I'm forgetting at the moment.

      It would be great if there were as many bulk unlockers for Sprint as there are for AT&T locked phones. But every single one can only unlock it for use outside the USA. And the number of people that point Sprint locked users to one of these sites that can't help is also pretty infuriating, but understandably so. I mean why would someone ever choose Sprint? Don't ever use Sprint.

      It seems like Sprint plans on budging as small as possible to meet the CTIA agreement by allowing phones to be unlocked if they're manufactured after some date in 2015 (February I believe). But that still leaves me completely boned.

      I use a GPP. But it kind of sucks to be locked to jailbroken iOS versions to get the unlock to work with 3G data. Especially since my wife's phone has all sorts of buggy behavior and I'd like to do a clean wipe of it. But it's unclear if the GPP/NeterTeam patches work on 7.1.2 jailbroken through Pangu.


      >_<

      Don't ever ever ever EVER use Sprint.
    1. bigboyz's Avatar
      bigboyz - 2014-07-17, 06:31 PM
      Last I checked, once I pay for the phone and leave the store its mine. I don't need my government passing laws that are not needed. Get back to work and figure out the deficit issue, the lack of quality education, upholding our civil rights and actually following the constitution. SMH. Guess cell phones are more important.
    1. The6uest's Avatar
      The6uest - 2014-07-17, 06:58 PM
      I haven't had any problem unlocking my iPhones on AT&T after 2 years.
    1. fleurya's Avatar
      fleurya - 2014-07-17, 07:33 PM
      Quote Originally Posted by bigboyz View Post
      Last I checked, once I pay for the phone and leave the store its mine. I don't need my government passing laws that are not needed. Get back to work and figure out the deficit issue, the lack of quality education, upholding our civil rights and actually following the constitution. SMH. Guess cell phones are more important.
      I 100% agree. Really, this kind of crap should be covered by existing law: when I buy something I can do whatever I want with it, and when these telecoms pull this protectionist "locking" schemes it should be easily enforcable to make them unlock, or illegal to lock to begin with. It shouldn't take an act of congress to make this happen.

      But the reality is telecoms are locking their phones, denying our requests, demands, to unlock them, and nobody, law enforecement or otherwise, is making them unlock them. So, all we have left is an act of congress to make them do it. Trust me, I would love to take a local cop and a lawyer into my local Sprint store and have him force them to unlock my phone, but it isn't going to happen.

      Don't blame congress. Blame the telecoms and our ineffective law enforcement system. At least something is being done, and it shouldn't take a politician more than a minute to review this bill and decide to vote yes.
    1. Christophxr's Avatar
      Christophxr - 2014-07-17, 08:47 PM
      Bill moves to the House, where, like every other bill in the House, abso-*******-lutely nothing will happen.

      I don't want to get all political on this thread, but this Congress has passed less bills than any other Congress ever. Ever.

      Ever.
    1. kinetic6's Avatar
      kinetic6 - 2014-07-18, 07:48 AM
      There are still any number of places in Europe that will do It for 20 Euros
    1. c0deName_ZERO's Avatar
      c0deName_ZERO - 2014-07-18, 08:01 PM
      Quote Originally Posted by DirkSwizzler View Post
      I doubt this will help me get my Sprint locked 4S unlocked for use in the United States.

      The amount of ******** their customer service team spew is infuriating. They bounce between "Here's an MSL code", "Your new carrier is responsible for unlocking", "The 4S hardware isn't capable of using U.S. GSM networks", "It's illegal for us to unlock your phone", "Call Apple to unlock", and probably a couple more lines I'm forgetting at the moment.

      It would be great if there were as many bulk unlockers for Sprint as there are for AT&T locked phones. But every single one can only unlock it for use outside the USA. And the number of people that point Sprint locked users to one of these sites that can't help is also pretty infuriating, but understandably so. I mean why would someone ever choose Sprint? Don't ever use Sprint.

      It seems like Sprint plans on budging as small as possible to meet the CTIA agreement by allowing phones to be unlocked if they're manufactured after some date in 2015 (February I believe). But that still leaves me completely boned.

      I use a GPP. But it kind of sucks to be locked to jailbroken iOS versions to get the unlock to work with 3G data. Especially since my wife's phone has all sorts of buggy behavior and I'd like to do a clean wipe of it. But it's unclear if the GPP/NeterTeam patches work on 7.1.2 jailbroken through Pangu.


      >_<

      Don't ever ever ever EVER use Sprint.
      I feel your pain buying a sprint locked phone is quite a suicidal buy !!!! Specially when ur outta contract and u wanna use ur beloved device else were .....DO NOT BUY PHONES FROM SPRINT !!! They will be useless when u decide to leave the company

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