They had until 21 December 2020 to transpose into UK law. Since the UK will follow the European Electronic Communications Code (EECC) after transition, we needed to and will still retain this regulation.
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UK Ban on Sale of Locked Handsets to Come into Effect December 2021
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About time. It's utterly ridiculous that the likes of EE etc are getting away with selling duel SIM handsets with BOTH SIM's locked to their own network.
The whole point of dual SIM is to be able to use other providers SIM cards!!
Anyone buying a new iPhone with an eSIM from EE for example cannot also use the empty physical SIM slot with any other provider until EE unlock it which they will refuse to do for the first 6 months!
The whole point of dual SIM is to be able to use other providers SIM cards!!
Anyone buying a new iPhone with an eSIM from EE for example cannot also use the empty physical SIM slot with any other provider until EE unlock it which they will refuse to do for the first 6 months!
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Yeah, thieves have the ability to lock some phones (but probably not iPhones, especially with Find My switched on)Surely thieves have the ability to unlock phones?
Accepting there can be other issues, but does phone locking really make a big difference to the not-pay-for-6-months contract situation?
I'll take your word for you bona fides.
Phone locking no longer makes much of a difference, which is why half the major operators in the UK didn't even bother.
Around here telecoms never sold dual SIM phones and when they did (those with SD card or second SIM option) the second SIM was disabled.
A few years ago the locked phone stuff mostly passed, they don't need that anymore, most people are on 2 year contracts, they don't care what you do with the phone, you will pay the contract anyway.
Locked phones was a thing when pay as you go was the most common phone arrangement. Nowadays it's mostly all in one contracts.
Well, a little forethought might have been advisable.
You get a "discount" on the purchase of a phone if you sight a contract with a TelCom and purchase a locked phone. Win=win.
Now you pay MORE upfront to purchase an unlocked phone. How is this saving money?
Don't be a cheapskate and you don't have this problem
You get a "discount" on the purchase of a phone if you sight a contract with a TelCom and purchase a locked phone. Win=win.
Now you pay MORE upfront to purchase an unlocked phone. How is this saving money?
Don't be a cheapskate and you don't have this problem
This is one of those things NA is super behind at. EU has done this for a long time now. Time to catch up NA carriers!
Can't really understand why this is such an issue that OFCOM have made this change.
If you buy a handset and plan, you're tied into a contract anyway...If you want to cancel early it'll cost you a small fortune.....so a customer wanting to leave for "a better deal" will have to pay a huge early termination fee to get access to that "better deal"?
And towards the end of your contract - providers will provide unlocking codes FOC anyway......
If you buy a handset and plan, you're tied into a contract anyway...If you want to cancel early it'll cost you a small fortune.....so a customer wanting to leave for "a better deal" will have to pay a huge early termination fee to get access to that "better deal"?
And towards the end of your contract - providers will provide unlocking codes FOC anyway......
A while back, partner's then phone became unusable (battery failing within an hour or two of charging). Obviously needed a new battery or phone.
But, on a temporary basis, I could easily have lent her my phone. (At the time, I had a work phone which would have been sufficient for a few days.)
If my phone had been locked, and she used a different network (she did and does), it would not have been possible.
In other words, entirely innocent and necessary behaviour prevented by locking.
Current information suggests that unlocking can be slow with networks sometimes taking several days to do so. And corner shop unlocking is not exactly a wonderful approach with Covid-19. Again, issues which will be avoided in the future.
We see much criticism of the Three network in the UK, but they have not locked phones for almost seven years.
There are multiple reasons why it's better:
- Using a SIM from a local network when travelling internationally
- Using a SIM from a different network in dual SIM mode (e.g. work and personal plans)
- Selling/giving away/trading in your phone before the end of the contract
- Some providers are very slow to unlock phones at the end of a contract. For less common makes/models, it can be difficult to get the correct unlocking code
- No fees for the consumer to get the phone unlocked
One main concern is the payment plans handling a supposedly “$0 device” but Apple threw a nuke at it all with their either upgrade program or the hard to match Apple Card cash-back/interest-free payments, “just get the phone, find the carrier later” for Apple products.
I think that’s better, others could follow suite making the “locked phone” would just be the dumber choice (except with some great deal of sorts)... myself, I buy the phones upfront, but if that card finally arrives it just makes sense to buy the products like that and not dispose of big chunks of money at a time.
Though if anyone breaks a contract that way EE will have the IMEI blacklisted anyway, so the SIM lock doesn't really matter. Anyway some other service providers dropped this some time ago, and Carphone Warehouse have been selling unlocked phones on EE contracts for decades, so EE will know perfectly well that this isn't necessary for that purpose. It's just the best ******** that EE PR could come out with to justify their continuing this practice for so long.
The Canadian telecom oligopoly was forced to remove the $50 unlock fee, so what those crooks did was just add a $40 new line “activation” fee for anybody who switches between carriers.
Can they also ban carrier own versions of firmware too? Not for Apple clearly but that was a worse problem than locking the phone for me - having to wait for a carrier branded firmware update for a Samsung phone which never came.
Mmm, actually are Apple phones locked on those UK carriers that do carry one this wretched practice?
Mmm, actually are Apple phones locked on those UK carriers that do carry one this wretched practice?
Moving is easy - there's already systems in place for porting numbers and cancelling contracts and not being allowed to bill extra. They've been out for ages.
I have never quite understood the concept of "locked" phones. Is there any particular benefit to it? If not, why would people buy them in the first place? I don't understand the need of a regulator having to step in to ban this.
For many of the carriers you didnt have a choice, if you got the phone as part of a contract it was locked and there was no option for an unlocked phone short of buying direct from Apple. As mentioned if you got from Three with a contract it was unlocked and they made a big point of the fact they were doing it as it was not the norm at all then a few others have followed the practice. You then also had the fun and games of places like Carphone Warehouse who sold phones with options for different networks, initially the phone was unlocked but would lock to the network of the first Sim that was installed. Saw numerous forum posts from people who for whatever reason had put one network sim in initially for testing or something then couldnt use their actual Sim from another network as the phone had locked to the other network.
very fair points - I suppose I've never had to go down the first few points in your reply so never thought of those in practical terms!
I think the original justification behind locking handsets was the handsets were subsidised by the networks......but I don't think this is very common now, well....not with iphones anyway!
Unlikely as you normally sign a contract for the plan and the phone is then subsidised, it technically becomes your property immediately, but you commit to pay the contract. This differs on O2, Sky and Virgin where they separate the plan and the phone cost.
You could only use a second sim from the same network unless it was unlocked.
Won’t this likely be the end of the carrier promotions then? Usually carriers are more willing to give bigger upfront discounts on products/services when they know that they’ll be giving you bill credits to make it “free” over 2 years. If you cancel service you forfeit the bill credits. Or is this not what’s happening here?
Presumably you are still tied into the phone contract for say 24 months and you are committed to paying the agreed monthly cost for that duration or paying it up ahead of time. If you opted to get another network sim to use in the unlocked phone you would be paying for both so the original network arent really losing out.