US Carriers must Carrier Unlock smartphones as of Wednesday February 11th 2015 – How Americans can get their smartphones Carrier unlocked

“We are pleased the FCC acknowledged the participating wireless Carriers met the deadlines to unlock their customers' devices per the Consumer Code for Wireless Service. We also remind consumers that an unlocked device does not necessarily mean an interoperable one since different Carriers use different technologies and spectrum bands”

CTIA's vice president for regulatory affairs, Scott Bergmann in a statement on the unlocking of smartphones as required by the Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act on Wednesday February 11^th 2015

American, it’s finally legal to request that your Carrier unlock your smartphone on purchase.

This came into effect as of Wednesday February 11^th 2015, the date on which Telecom Providers are now legally obliged to give customer the option to Carrier unlock their smartphones as noted in the article “UNLOCKING YOUR PHONE IS LEGAL AGAIN: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW”, published February 11, 2015 By Williams Pelegrin, DigitalTrends. 

On Friday August 1^st 2014, my birthday, President Barack Obama signed the “Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act” (S.517) as noted in my blog article entitled “Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act makes Cellphone Unlocking Legal again - President Barack Obama upholds DMCA”.

Americans have thus won the right for smartphone unlocking to be legal on Wednesday February 11^th 2015. Now, whenever you purchase a smartphone, you have the option to either get the Smartphone of your choice on a two (2) year contract or pay the full price and get the smartphone completely unlocked. From that point on you can use your smartphone on any Network that you choose.

Carriers must unlock smartphones on request – CDMA and GSM Network Limitations Still Apply

The CTIA, the trade body that represents all Telecom Provider in the US of A, had committed to meeting the deadline to comply with the Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act by Wednesday February 11^th 2015.

Now that it’s legit, no more third-party websites for smartphone is required as detailed 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”.

Smartphones sold before February 2015 can only be unlocked to International Carriers, not other US Carriers. So Jamaicans reading this, that “International Carriers” means “Jamaica”.

All the major Carriers, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, and U.S. Cellular, have all subscribed to the same industry cellphone unlocking standard as noted in the article “US Carriers will now unlock your phone, thanks to law change”, published February 11, 2015 13:00 GMT By Zack Whittaker, ZDNet. Please note the following:

1.      AT&T and T-Mobile and GSM and use a SIM Card

2.      Verizon, Sprint and U.S. Cellular are CDMA Networks and do not use a SIM Card

3.      If the CDMA phone appears to have a SIM Card slot, either you’ve mistaken the SD Card slot for a SIM Card slot, or you have an International version of the smartphone

However, the technology behind the smartphone determines which Network you can switch your plan.

Thus AT&T and T-Mobile smartphones can be unlocked to work on each other Networks as well as any other Telecom Providers within the US of A or internationally that use a SIM (Subscriber Identification Module).  Verizon, Sprint and U.S. Cellular use CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) and thus phones unlocked by these respective Carriers can only work on each other’s Networks as well as any other Telecom Providers within the US of A or internationally that use CDMA.

Carriers must unlock smartphones on request – How to get your smartphone Carrier unlocked

Now for the unlocking bit! Here’s how it works.

The new rules as laid out under the Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act apply to both Prepaid and Postpaid smartphones as well as those on a two (2) year plan as noted in the article “US Carriers, you'll have to unlock those phones”, published February 12, 2015 6:44 AM PST by Don Reisinger, CNET News.  

On the Postpaid and two (2) year plan side, once you are in good standing with your Telecom Provider i.e. you've not any payments and the two (2) year contract is at an end, you will be allowed to option by your Telecom Provider to unlock your smartphone. If you have a few more months payments left, you'll have to pony up that money to clear the two (2) year plan before your Smartphone in order for it to be unlocked.

If you’re a Prepaid customer, then life is quite straightforward for you. Simply put, once you've had the Smartphone on a Prepaid plan for no longer than a year, you can get it unlocked from that Network.

Also, there are some service requirements. All unlocking of smartphones must be completed within two (2) days of a request by a customer. Best of all, policies have to made clear to consumers, especially that stuff in fine print that nobody can read clearly unless they have a high powered magnifying glass.

Happy smartphone unlocking Americans. Jamaicans, remember to buy your smartphones Carrier unlocked before you send them down in the Barrel so that I can save on the cost of unlocking the smartphone to have it work on my favourite Network!