Canada to Outlaw Locked Cell Phones
It is interesting how our neighbors to the North act (I am in the United States). They don’t have near the bureaucracy to deal with that we do here in the USA. That is evident in the fact that their government will be banning locked cell phones on December 1st, 2017.
This is interesting for me because my first experience with Windows Phone (Lumia 521) was through T-Mobile – notorious for locking their phones. They have fairly easy to deal with unlocking requirements – 40 days (was 90 when I used them) of active service and your device hast to be fully paid off. I was with them the required period, kept my account active, and was given no trouble in unlocking my phone for use on AT&T. I have heard horror stories with other carriers though.
Apparently the CRTC has updated their Wireless Code which is a “mandatory code of conduct for providers of retail mobile wireless voice and data services” which was created in 2013. For the interim carriers had to unlock phones upon request but after December 1st, they will have to unlock the devices prior to them being sold.
This is great news for Canadian cell phone users. Now if we can get similar changes made to this situation in the United States.
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Canada to Outlaw Locked Cell Phones
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This is ridiculous. Just let people choose what they sell and what they buy.
Now, I usually get flack from Americans when I say this. They will think I'm an uneducated American hillbilly or something. But I'm well educated and this is how we do it in Sweden.
Granted, Sweden is not the U.S. or Canada. But neither the laws of physics nor economics seize to matter once you cross the ocean, I'll promise you that.
Unfortunately, in the United States it is all about how much money you can wring out of customers. I remember when cell phone providers could actually charge you to unlock your completely paid off cell phone. Now they hide that charge behind "usage minimums" like T-Mobile does to get around it being illegal to ask for a fee to unlock your phone. It is ridiculous.
Apparently there's no money in "consumer choice". How sad...
The way it seems to me, most of the time the real "customer" that the companies care about catering to and pleasing is the government regulatory body itself.
Extremely true words there. They only do what they have to do to get the product on shelves and avoid hefty fines by the government - consumer be damned in many cases.
There are many layers. Fines would be one. But then there are outright bribes and more often various influence games or "favors".
Politicians and big business established the first "gift economy" ;)