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

2K views 27 replies 9 participants last post by  macintosh doctor 
#1 ·
#5 ·
92 views and one reply?????

WTF???

Given all the whining and bitching over cellphone rates seen here on ehMac over the years I thought ehMacers would be all over this news item.

Turns out, when it really comes down to it, nobody gives a sh*t.........

:confused: :confused:
 
#6 ·
Mandatory unlocking doesn't solve any problems. You could unlock any phone before, if the carrier loan was paid off or if you unlocked it elsewhere. There's still no incentive for the 2 networks (Bell/Telus and Rogers/Fido) to compete. Freedom's coverage is so pathetic that it's barely a footnote.

All this does is save $20-$50 in unlocking fees.
 
#9 ·
Unfortunately we couldn't wait a month and a bit to unlock a used/locked Bell Mobility iPhone 6S and cost us $50.00 to be able to use it with my wife's existing 7-11 Speakout plan she already had.

At least that specific cost has disappeared for those who might need or want it, or can use it. But I'm not sure if her iPhone is completely unlocked now or not, if she did want to change for some odd reason. How does one tell???
 
#11 ·
@rgray



Thanks gray, but as I recall I checked that article, and some others, when we received the iPhone but none of the suggestions actually worked or gave any real accurate info, including using its emi ?? code and checking with some web unlocker checking sites.

Getting it unlocked via Bell Mobility was quite a time consuming process and a real PITA and had to use my son in Whitehorse as a current Bell user with a three way phone conversation.

I hope the new unlocking method works better for those who might need it.

They also seem to treat all such cellphones as being stollen which is hard to prove otherwise when the previous client/owner is somewhere in the outback boonies somewhere in Yukon or beyond!!! :(
 
#12 ·
The issue that I see is that carriers found income with unlocking devices. They won’t want to give up millions in $50 charges easily and will look at options to keep the money coming in so will there really be an increase in competition? All the carriers are generally all working together so I don’t see much happening in the way of competition. They are just going to to make sure the contracts are air tight and we are handicapped by the device payments.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#15 ·
The issue that I see is that carriers found income with unlocking devices. They won’t want to give up millions in $50 charges easily and will look at options to keep the money coming in
... yup.. you have to imagine someone somewhere is crunching the numbers... we did an average of X unlocks at $50 (yearly) which resulted in Y dollars... now we take that Y dollars and divide by total customers (contract and non) we have in total of Z and increase everyone's rates by Y/Z + 10% (the extra 10% just cuz that's how we big Telco companies do) :)

BReligion
 
#14 ·
I have been buying my iPhones outright since the iPhone 5 so had an unlocked phone. Cheaper for me to buy outright as my plan is to good and no available ($65 a month, 6 gigs data, etc etc). It does give some flexibility, I have a US sim card/number for when I travel into the states and if I needed to I could get a German number. My mom has a German number as she visits family frequently and always gets my old iPhones so they are unlocked.
 
#17 ·
I wonder how things have actually changed after reading the conditions at Bell Mobility.

Especially if thing are the same as my situation was and the previous owner hadn't had the iPhone unlocked and was somewhere out in the wild boonies in the Yukon and out of reach.

Here's what Bell says:
PS: This is why I had to use my son's help and services in Whitehorse and who is also a very big current Bell Mobility user.
 

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#19 ·
So are you now going to get "some significant competition of rates amongst providers" you mentioned previously ???? :confused: :greedy:

I still wonder what will happen with those who purchase a used still locked phone and expect to get it unlocked at no charge when the previous owner/user has moved on somewhere unknown. ???

I suspect it won't be as simple. XX)
 
#21 · (Edited)
As for increased competion and rate reductions..... only time will tell.

Maybe the Bigs will get nervous with all the uncommitted phones around...

Maybe the smaller players will develop the stones to take them on....
 
#22 ·
I suggest it could be considered unethical, again post Dec. 1, to offer a locked phone for sale!!!
That makes logical sense and buyers should be aware of the state of the product they might be purchasing.

As stated earlier my experience was a 10 min conversation with Rogers..... FWIW I am not the original purchaser of this phone
You are lucky they were a Rogers client.

As they state in their conditions:
Can I unlock a device that I bought from another carrier?

We can only unlock devices that were purchased directly from Rogers.

To pm-r perhaps your issue is with Bell rather than the process?? Just sayin'........
The free unlocking process was not available prior to Dec 1st, and the previous owner had not unlocked it and neither was he available to contact to do any unlocking change. Quite a different set of circumstances.
 
#27 ·
Seemed like they just punched that number into some sort of database and job done....

Apparently, and just for interest sake, it seems that Apple is the keeper of their cell devices "database" records or whatever they use and the IMEI number etc. must be submitted to them. Other cell device companies don't do it that way, so once again Apple is just different!!! ;-)

Anyway, it seems to work.
 
#28 ·
i always buy unlocked iPhones from apple so i could careless for this new rule.
instead i would prefer the cartel - monopoly pricing stop and we get some outside providers in to stir s h i t up in the market.
 
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