The Federal Communications Commission has finally signed an agreement with five of the biggest wireless carrier in the United States that will allow consumers to unlock their cellphones more easily.
The new agreement requires the wireless carriers to disclose their regulation regarding how and when cell phones under their network can be unlocked.
Previously, for customers to unlock their phones in order to use other carrier's network they need to fulfill the contract they signed which is usually around two years. Under the new regulation imposed by the FCC, the customers only need to pay off their plan if they are not willing to exhaust the remaining period of their contract.
The FCC also added that both prepaid and postpaid subscribers are permitted to unlock their phones given that they have cleared their respective contract to their network, according to Tom's Guide. Unlocking the phone will also be offered for free as long as they let their own carrier do it.
In response to the new FCC ruling four major carriers have already issued instructions on how to unlock their customer's devices. These companies are Verizon, Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile.
The companies will also notify their customers when their handsets will be eligible for unlocking. Unlocking requests usually takes two business days to be catered.
Cellphone unlocking has been going on for years but the process was recently tagged illegal when the Library of Congress decided to renew a certain exemption in the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, according to CNet. The revision has made quite a stir in the tech community and has even caused the White House to step in.