Did you know about the new unlocked iPhone rules? Roaming the web, I found an interesting story that reports about major American wireless companies agreeing on the new cell phone unlock rules in the U.S. What is this agreement about? How has the unlocked policy and rules changed for ordinary users like you and me?
According to the report, American mobile operators are truly eager to make the unlocking procedures simpler. They are also going to standardize the unlocking policies for smartphones and tablet devices across the country. It is not clear when exactly AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint and U.S. Cellular are going to implement their agreement in practice so users have to wait till everything becomes simple, clear and easy for all ordinary users.
The cell phone unlocking law allows users to unlock their iPhones and other mobile gadgets in the U.S. It is legal and officially allowed by Apple and carriers that agree to support CTIA principles.
These principles are announced to public but we can only guess how carriers agree to act in the future. The unlocking principles include:
- clear explanation of the carrier’s unlocking policy to customers
- agreement to unlock the prepaid smartphone upon customer’s request [within the year from the moment of device’s activation]
- agreement to unlock postpaid data plan subscribers upon their request [after the contract it over]
- agreement to unlock the devices within the two business days after receiving unlock request from a subscriber
- agreement to unlock handsets of deployed military
- agreement to notify subscribers when they can be unlocked
Of course, not all these rules fully operate nowadays. American carriers are eager to unlock your smartphone upon your request but only one your contract is over or you pay the early termination fee in case you are still on contract. Users still have to contact mobile companies and find out if they are eligible for unlock or not and not all carrier’s employees even know what the unlock is.
But if your iPhone is locked to AT&T all you need is to choose the unlocking package for your device and provide us with your IMEI number. Everything else we will do for you and your iPhone will be permanently unlocked.
Users will surely win when they get public information about cell phone unlock rules directly from their mobile company. Carriers agreed to move on sticking to the CTIA and the future looks bright.