[Acura604]

although should be in mobile chat, this is big news!


CRTC bans cellphone unlocking fees, orders all new devices be unlocked - Business - CBC News (http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/crtc-wireless-code-cellphone-1.4161711)

The era of having to pay cellular providers to unlock your cellphone will end this year.

As of Dec. 1, cellphone customers can ask their provider to unlock their phones free of charge, the CRTC announced Thursday. At the same time, it said, all newly purchased mobile devices must be provided to customers unlocked.

"It's a big step forward," said Rose Behar, senior reporter for the tech site MobileSyrup in Toronto.

Telecoms often order locked phones from manufacturers that are programmed to work only with their service. Then they charge a fee — typically $50 — to unlock the phone if a customer wants to switch providers.

"Essentially a locked phone did keep consumers tethered to their service provider," because they faced paying a fee to flee, said Behar.

"Now there's going to be so much more flexibility in being able to jump from plan to plan, from carrier to carrier. That will likely spark more competition."

[Traum]

I wonder what other creative ways the cellular service providers will come up with to rip us off... :rolleyes:

(Or maybe they'll just go back to the good ol' fashioned monthly plan rate hikes... )

[jackmeister]

I wonder what other creative ways the cellular service providers will come up with to rip us off... :rolleyes:

(Or maybe they'll just go back to the good ol' fashioned monthly plan rate hikes... )

pretty sure your $199 iphone 7 will become $249 on contract.

[Mikoyan]

Unlocking gets all the hype, but the bigger impact from the ruling I think is the ruling that data/overage caps are per account rather than per user on on the account.

Previously, if you had two users on an account, each would have the 50/100 cap applied individually. Now, it's 50/100 for the entire account. And only the Account holder by default can approve usage past the block. Win for parents trying to control their kids data usage.

The unlocking ruling is a win, but the actual percentage of people unlocking devices is low (~3% officially). Unlocking for international travel will be nice.

[invader]

I wonder what other creative ways the cellular service providers will come up with to rip us off... :rolleyes:

(Or maybe they'll just go back to the good ol' fashioned monthly plan rate hikes... )

Remember the "Connection Fee?"

Just like the airport, coming up with ridiculous fees, they implement something.

Good thing the CRTC has the consumers back. Took them a long ass time. But at least they're doing it.

[bcrdukes]

There will likely be a smaller or no subsidy for cost of devices.

[quasi]

The carriers aren't going to lose that 37 million annually it will be passed on to future contracts.

[BaoTurbo]

Good move but that money is going to come out somewhere else like a fee included in every purchase of a phone.

[Bouncing Bettys]

How does or will bloatware factor into this? So many useless apps I can't get rid of without rooting the phone and risking stability.

[Mikoyan]

How does or will bloatware factor into this? So many useless apps I can't get rid of without rooting the phone and risking stability.

That's mostly on the device manufacturers.

[Gerbs]

Aiya just paid to unlock an iphone 6

[Dragon-88]

Aiya just paid to unlock an iphone 6

You were willing to wait until december to unlock your phone?

[Reeyal]

We'll have to see...
The cost will flow down to the consumers. We end up paying for everything anyway. Look at when mobile contracts were forced to be reduced to 2 years from 3 years. Monthly payments went up. The "savings" were a wash.

[Ohkun]

In other news....

Carriers will charges extra $50 for cellphones..