Unlocking your phone may become legal

Good news has emerged among journalists for those of us who do not like our phones being locked to a single carrier and having to find alternate ways to go around unlocking our devices. In the U.S., the House of Representatives has approved the Senate’s bill petitioning for the legalization of phone unlocking. They proposed a bill that states that users may unlock their phones from their carriers without explicit consent from the carriers if their contracts have expired and they can prove ownership of the phone.

There has been a precursor to this bill passed by the House in the past, but consensus on the content and provision of the bill had not been reached yet and the proposal from the House comes with the tied obligation of agreeing upon the rules that will apply to the bill’s beneficiaries. Bulk unlocking had been banned two years ago, but this bill comes as refreshing news because unlocking phones has been an enormous hassle, especially for those who have a tighter budget and cannot afford their desired models unless they are on offer with various carriers. Having a locked phone means you are constrained to use the same carrier even if you are not satisfied with their service and cannot afford a phone with a different carrier. There is always the option of trade among individuals, but that comes with its own issues, and illegal unlocking, well, it costs a lot and it is against the law…

It turns out that it is now up to the President whether the “Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act” will become real or not. It has been a pretty voiced opinion that carriers should not be allowed to lock phones in the first place, so some kind of change was being expected for a while now.