“Even
though the vast majority of Americans enjoy upgrading to new devices once their
contract terms are fulfilled, we recognize that some consumers may want to
unlock their devices to move to another carrier. Like the voluntary commitment
CTIA's carriers entered into last December, this bill enables that process.
Users should keep in mind unlocked does not necessarily mean interoperable, as
carrier platforms and spectrum holdings vary”
Vice President of
Government Affairs at CTIA-The Wireless Association, Jot Carpenter, who
represents AT&T, Sprint T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless, commenting on the
Historic signing of the Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act
It
has finally happened in the Great US of A, our smartphone loving neighbor to
the North. And on my Birthday too as noted in my blog article entitled
“How
to make Oreo Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcakes - My Chocolate Summer in Milk
River as I'm dreaming of Swallowfield”.
On
Friday August 1st 2014, President Barack Obama signed the “Unlocking
Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act” (S.517) into law as stated in “President
signs cell phone unlocking bill into law”, published August 1, 2014 2:42 PM
PDT by Marguerite Reardon, CNET News and “Unlocking
Your Cell Phone In The U.S. Is Officially Legal Again”, published August 1
2014, by Greg Kumparak, TechCrunch.
Curiously,
this Act is only valid until 2015 as pointed out in “Thanks,
Obama: Now you can legally unlock your smartphone if you want to”,
published Aug 1, 2014 4:59 PM, by Florence Ion, Greenbot. Also, it’s set to be reviewed
every three (3) years, a clause possibly put in place to address the concerns
of Telecom Providers, who want this piece of legislation to reflect the
changing reality of the Telecom Market, hence the review period. It’ll be the
same battle again next year, but possible with a different President in the
White House.
Still,
due to the Bi-Partisan Support that this Bill garnered up to the point of
signing, it may easily have been, at least in the eyes of the common man, the
most important thing President Barack Obama has done for many Americans.
This
is the very same Bill that had just reached the Senate Judiciary Committee made
up of members of the Upper House of Senate of the US Congress on Thursday June
10th 2014 as stated in my blog article entitled
“Senate
Judiciary Committee approve Smartphone Unlocking Bill on Thursday June 10th
2014 - Jamaicans access to unlocked smartphones to increase”.
Unlocking cellphones
legal – Moments in Time that Led up to this point in History
This
basically reversed the decision on the Library of Congress back in January 2013
that made cellphone unlocking illegal as explained in my blog article
entitled “Librarian
of the Library of Congress makes smartphone unlocking Illegal - How Jamaica can
benefit from the Safe Haven of MNP by banning unlocking of smartphones and
Tablets”.
It
has basically upheld the principle as laid down in the DMCA (Digital Millennium
Copyright Act) that had been in place that allowed Americans to unlock
cellphones without the attendant prison fines as further explained in “Law changed to allow
'unlocking' cellphones”, published Aug 01, 2014 by Anne Flaherty, PhysOrg.
Americans
will now find it easier to choose a cellphone carrier and switch between
Carriers so long as their Cellphone contracts have expired in order to avoid
the ETF (Early Termination Fees) for breaking their two (2) year contracts
early.
Additionally
Americans who travel often can now unlock their cellphones, particularly
smartphones so as to take advantages of another Telecom Provider’s Network by
just buying and popping in a SIM (Subscriber Identification Module) instead of
having to pay expensive Roaming charges from their American Telecom Provider.
How to unlock your
Smartphone in the US of A – Cave Canem as this isn’t for everyone
According
to the Gigaom article “Now
that it’s legal, here’s how to unlock your phone on all four U.S. carriers”,
published JUL. 28, 2014 - 4:00 PM PDT by Kif Leswing, Gigaom, you can go to your Carrier and have it
unlocked by them. This can of course be:
1. AT&T
2. Verizon
3. Sprint
4. T-Mobile
5. US
Cellular
AT&T,
T-Mobile and US Cellular are GSM (Global Service Mobile); Verizon and Sprint
are CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access). You’ll have to be mindful of a few
things though:
1. Name
2. Account
Number
3. SSN
4. IMEI
(International Mobile Equiptment Number) usually located under the battery or
by dialing *#06#
5. Phone
number assigned to the phone
6. Your
overseas deployment papers if you’re in the military
7. Your
contract has to be finished. Carriers cannot unlock phones that still have time
left on them
On
reading this I realize that this law technical changes very little, as many
who’ve signed to two (2) year Contracts cannot get their smartphones unlocked
if their contract started this year. Worse, by the time some persons with more
advanced contracts end next year the Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless
Competition Act may have changed for the worse.
This
is also good news for Internationals such a Jamaicans however. As what this
will mean for Internationals purchases of smartphones is that once relatives
send down smartphones, they can use the same instructions in my blog article
entitled “How
to unlock any phone and put it on any Network - Guaranteed to unlock any
Feature or Smartphone on the Chennai Express” and unlock their smartphones.
Ditto
too Apple iPhones as pointed out in my blog article
entitled “How
to Unlock your Apple iPhone - Backup, Erase and Restore with The Bag Man being
iOS Setup Assistant”. With this law now freshly minted on my Birthday and
signed by President Barack Obama, let’s see how well it fares by 2015.
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