CRTC (Canada) bans cellhpones unlocking fees

[MorganO]

Just now, GoodBytes said:

A. Don't get what you can't afford. They are fine phones for 150$. You can save money also. Meaning, for 2 years you "pay" the extra cost as you would normally for a phone with the provider, allowing you full purchase your next phone, and still save as you get cheaper plans that better fit your needs.

 

B. I also want to drive a Porsche every Monday, and Tuesday a Maserati. But i don't, 'cause I don't like debt.

Yeah there's that

[ExplodingTNT]

1 hour ago, KOMTechAndGaming said:

my iphone when i had it i jsut had to send the team(unlocking team for my carrier) an email etc and it was done automaticly?

Probably because iPhones allow for carriers to control cellular-related settings remotely, I believe they can change things like APNs and other stuff, including the phone's carrier lock status. 

[Shutter Boy]

Good new everyone.

 

"As of Dec. 1, cellular providers will have to unlock your phone free of charge

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." 

 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/crtc-wireless-code-cellphone-1.4161711

 

[8uhbbhu8]

OMG! YES!!!!!!!

[vanished]

About time.  The concept of locked phones, and phones sold through and tied to a carrier is insane and never should have even existed.  It's bad enough you have to stay with them because of some legal document, but there's also the problem of carriers interfering with the device itself, installing software or modifying the OS by injecting themselves into the update process, so rather than it coming from Google, through the maker (LG, samsung, etc.) and then to you, it then goes through Telus or Bell or whoever and then to you, making it even slower and probably less secure.  Imagine if your ISP installed things on your PC and didn't let you use your devices with anyone else without paying a switching fee.  This is no different... or at least, was no different.  Thank god it's finally over.

 

And as this:

2 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

They'll find other ways to block it. Like forcing manufactures to get a custom firmware where they block frequencies not owned by them. This means you can only use their network... so even if you switch provider, you are stuck with them, and they get money regardless.

Hopefully not, or that will be outlawed too.  These rules need to be more general, basically preventing any software or hardware modification of the device by the carrier.

[Just Monika]

This is awesome news. I've always avoided locked phones and purchased them outright because I refuse to spend my money on something artificially locked down to a specific carrier. Though monthly plans are probably going to increase in price due to "increasing carrier costs" or some usual BS reason.

[Furkmyster]

I am a little confused.  If you get a new phone on a contract for two years, why would you care about it being locked, especially on the expensive flagship models?  If you want to change carrier every two months, you are going to have pay full price for a phone in the first place.  I would rather than waste my time flip flopping on that.

[GoodBytes]

4 minutes ago, Furkmyster said:

I am a little confused.  If you get a new phone on a contract for two years, why would you care about it being locked, especially on the expensive flagship models?  If you want to change carrier every two months, you are going to have pay full price for a phone in the first place.  I would rather than waste my time flip flopping on that.

After those 2 years, you can change providers, as you are no longer locked in that contract, but you can't. The carrier asks a 50$ charge for them to unlock your phone. But most people, especially those who like to get fancy phones, change their phones 1 year to 2 years in their contract, 'cause they have to have the latest and greatest phone.

[dizmo]

That's awesome news! For a vast number of reasons. I do wonder though, how they will combat people signing up for a contract and then selling the phone. The carrier must have some way to ban them still, no? Glad that I can finally buy whatever phone I want without having to factor in an extra $50 to the price for basically no reason.

 

3 hours ago, KOMTechAndGaming said:

my iphone when i had it i jsut had to send the team(unlocking team for my carrier) an email etc and it was done automaticly?

Didn't know London,UK was in Canada

3 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

They'll find other ways to block it. Like forcing manufactures to get a custom firmware where they block frequencies not owned by them. This means you can only use their network... so even if you switch provider, you are stuck with them, and they get money regardless.

 

But regardless, I don't see why people just don't buy unlock phones directly.

1. You can switch providers each month if you want
2. Gives you negotiating power when picking a plan
3. You can adapt your plan to your needs. Example: If you lose your job tomorrow, you can switch to a basic plan, minimizing your costs, and not stuck with a fortune to pay
4. Pay less per month
5. Pick a better plan that better fit your needs, saving money

• A lot of people are incapable of saving the money required to buy the device they want. Monthly payments is easier.
• In Canada, not every device is available any other place but a carrier.
• A lot of people think they actually save money financing the phone through the carrier, but in reality it's often the exact same price.
• Most cell phone companies let you change your plan if something like that happens.
• How do you figure it gives you negotiating power?

3 hours ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

Look at that difference. God damn.

  Hide contents

 

Those actually aren't terrible. Nothing compared to what's available abroad, but as far as Canadian plans go...

I've always hated how they say "save". You're not saving anything. You're financing the cost of the device.

They should be forced to use terms like "divert" or "finance".

Do you know if the Spotify streaming counts towards your data cap?

2 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

A. Don't get what you can't afford. They are fine phones for 150$. You can save money also. Meaning, for 2 years you "pay" the extra cost as you would normally for a phone with the provider, allowing you full purchase your next phone, and still save as you get cheaper plans that better fit your needs.

 

B. I also want to drive a Porsche every Monday, and Tuesday a Maserati. But i don't, 'cause I don't like debt. Car, and House (later in life for me) is already the limit for me.

People rarely want what they can afford, and often people can afford a little more per month instead of a lump sum.

12 minutes ago, Furkmyster said:

I am a little confused.  If you get a new phone on a contract for two years, why would you care about it being locked, especially on the expensive flagship models?  If you want to change carrier every two months, you are going to have pay full price for a phone in the first place.  I would rather than waste my time flip flopping on that.

What if you go traveling and and want to use your phone there? You'd need to have it unlocked.

What if you want to buy the phone outright? You currently have to pay an extra $50 to have it unlocked, for no reason.

There's plenty of reasons this is a good thing.

[Dabombinable]

3 hours ago, wkdpaul said:

not rooting, but carrier lock

 

Basically, unless you paid up to $50, you can't go to another cellphone carrier.

It was going to be $150 AUD to unlock my phone. A phone that was originally priced at $99 AUD and cost me $50 AUD because production was being discontinued.

[Dabombinable]

BTW, all they have to do to unlock a phone is enter a code. That's it. No special tools, no special training needed

[SansVarnic]

The US needs to implement this as well.

Would force Verizon to start using SIMs ... lol. I dont remember ifd AT&T is non-sim.

But yeah way to go Canada, doing something that actually is positive for its citizens.

[GoodBytes]

2 hours ago, dizmo said:

How do you figure it gives you negotiating power?

My phone is fully paid. I have a 7GB per month bandwidth cap, unlimited everything. This plan is 80.50$ after taxes. That is if you bring your own phone.

How much I pay? 43.07$ after taxes.

How come? I called, and negotiated. Because they better have less money out of me, but get some money.. then have nothing and me going to their competitor.

 

Quote

People rarely want what they can afford, and often people can afford a little more per month instead of a lump sum.

And that is why they'll be financially screwed. Wait until Canada boosts its interest rate, or the economy takes a small hit... we will have a nice little U.S-like event when they got their crash, where many had to declared bankruptcy as they could not pay anything back. While, I won't be much impacted, even if I lose my job, added with the fact that I have lots of savings. Allowing me to have time to search for a new one. I have a nice car, fancy gaming computer, expensive phone, and planning on buying the Switch and some games. I don't live off a can of Tuna every day. I have model that I follow. For example, my laptop, many people wonder how I can afford fancy products like the Surface Pro or before the Dell Latitude E6400 which had 4GB of RAM, LED backlight keyboard and screen, Nvidia GPU, SSD, dual band wireless N 2.4-5GHz, magnesium alloy body, 9h battery life (my measurements), "thin" (at the time we called it thin, now it is thick) 14inch. Remember this is a 2008 system, so all this was impressive. Came with Vista or XP. A near 2000$ machine. How I managed to get it? Well, the moment I buy a system, I build a saving to replace it... in 5 year time, you have a nice amount... by then the computer needs to be replace. I actually ended up with 3000$ in my pocket, ended up paying a Surface Pro 2 mid range model.. that was around 1300$ at the time, took the rest of the money and dump it to other savings that I am running for other things.

 

Sadly, as you said, most people don't know how to save.. and that is a problem. They want something NOW, and not be patient and get what they actually NEED.

[mr moose]

I wonder if this will mark the end of cheap prepaid phones or if the telco's will simply keep going hoping the phone with supplied sim is marketing enough to keep a customer.

[MoonSpot]

HOOAH!

 

Finally, a common sense one for the little guy.

(too little too late now that telcos killed the VOIPs from the early 2000s and squared away internet infrastructure ownership, but we'll take the victories we can get)

[Princess Luna]

4 hours ago, wkdpaul said:

The CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) just issued a ruling stating that service providers can't charge for phone unlocking and that from December 1st, all new phones sold have to be unlocked.

Only now? In Brazil that is common practice regulated by law since 2007

[Dylanc1500]

23 minutes ago, SansVarnic said:

The US needs to implement this as well.

Would force Verizon to start using SIMs ... lol. I dont remember ifd AT&T is non-sim.

But yeah way to go Canada, doing something that actually is positive for its citizens.

AT&T does indeed use sims.

[WkdPaul]

4 minutes ago, Princess Cadence said:

Only now? In Brazil that is common practice regulated by law since 2007

I know, sadly the big telecom companies here have become complacent because they own a near monopoly.

 

The price for carrier unlock is between $50 to $150 depending on the company and device. For exemple, I have a budget Huawei phone I'm not using anymore because it would cost $50 to unlock it (I changed carrier) ... the problem is, it's a sub $100 phone! Not going to pay MORE to unlock it than the actual resale value of that phone, it doesn't make sense!

 

But you can be sure that December 1st, I'm gonna call the carrier to get that phone unlocked!

[Princess Luna]

3 minutes ago, wkdpaul said:

!

Wow I might get easy on complaining how Brazilian legislature sucks for a while after this one, had no idea really, in here having mobile phones with multiple SIMM chips is common practice as pre-paid plans offerings and promotions are extremely common and very good, since back then the service did decrease costs for the final client and increased quality tremendously.

 

I'm very glad how Canada is going towards a more free and liberal service on communications that can only be good to every one.

[WkdPaul]

4 minutes ago, Princess Cadence said:

*snip*

yeah, the new Minister* we have seems to be kicking the CRTC for them to fix regulation so that it creates more competition and help consumers, a week ago he told them to review a recent ruling that basically helped the big telecoms. A new small carrier was using a roming contract from it's sister company, the main carrier (Rogers) didn't like it and complpained and the CRTC ruled in their favor.

 

Article about that here;

http://mobilesyrup.com/2017/06/05/crtc-sugar-mobile-navdeep-bains/

 

 

*yes world, our Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development is Sikh and wears a turban, deal with it 

[RagnarokDel]

5 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

They'll find other ways to block it. Like forcing manufactures to get a custom firmware where they block frequencies not owned by them. This means you can only use their network... so even if you switch provider, you are stuck with them, and they get money regardless.

 

But regardless, I don't see why people just don't buy unlock phones directly.

1. You can switch providers each month if you want
2. Gives you negotiating power when picking a plan
3. You can adapt your plan to your needs. Example: If you lose your job tomorrow, you can switch to a basic plan, minimizing your costs, and not stuck with a fortune to pay
4. Pay less per month
5. Pick a better plan that better fit your needs, saving money

They cant do that because the CRTC passed a rule a few years back to make it so carriers share towers.

 

[crysilis]

oooh very promising indeed

[GoodBytes]

Just now, crysilis said:

oooh very promising indeed

Towers supports multiple frequencies. Your phone can be locked down to only one via firmware, forcing to be with a specific provider that owns the band.

[crysilis]

1 minute ago, GoodBytes said:

Towers supports multiple frequencies. Your phone can be locked down to only one via firmware, forcing to be with a specific provider that owns the band.

dammit

why you get my hopes us man

[AshleyAshes]

26 minutes ago, wkdpaul said:

*yes world, our Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development is Sikh and wears a turban, deal with it 

So is our Minster of Defense.  ...Who I got a selfie with at midnight at an anime convention...