The White House has stated that phone unlocking in the US should be legal and that consumers should be free to switch their devices to any mobile operator of their choice.
The practice has been outlawed since January by the Library of Congress under the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which rules “No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.”
However a petition signed by more than 100,000 people has called for this to be overturned, and the White House has now said the government supports this.
Many in the telecoms industry have argued that phones should continue to be locked because of the subsidised price offered by operators to customers who take out long contracts, while others, like Apple say that unlocked devices pose a cyber-security threat. However, the petition argues that this restricts consumer choice and the ability to sell the phones on.
“If you have paid for your mobile device, and aren’t bound by a service agreement or other obligation, you should be able to use it on another network,” added Edelman. “It’s common sense, crucial for protecting consumer choice, and important for ensuring we continue to have the vibrant, competitive wireless market that delivers innovative products and solid service to meet consumers’ needs.”
In any case, it has been suggested that the practice could soon fall out of favour with US operators as the cost of subsidising the devices is simply too high.
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The updated information is.....It is now legal to get our phones unlocked from third party unlocking services in U.S.Recently, I unlocked my mobile .I had to travel outside my country and I had to unlock it very quickly.My network provider prolonged the unlock process...and luckily the amendment of unlocking phone made legal saved my time.I used the service from Prounlocking.com and removed the network lock very easily.They unlocked my phone within few hours....