6/25 OTI Files Joint Consumer/ISP Letter Asking FCC to Open Rulemaking on Mobile Phone Unlocking

Note: On June 27, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) published a tentative agenda for its July Open Meeting, clarifying its intent to consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on “Promoting Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Through Handset Unlocking Requirements and Policies”

The Open Technology Institute at New America (OTI), Consumer Reports, Verizon, Public Knowledge, Benton Institute for Broadband and Society, and EchoStar submitted a joint letter urging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to open a proceeding to consider consistent, industrywide handset unlocking requirements.

Handset unlocking allows consumers to more easily change wireless service providers while keeping their existing phone. This promotes a competitive wireless marketplace and enables consumer choice. Unlocking requirements are currently fragmented across the wireless industry: One of the three major mobile carriers, Verizon, has an automatic 60-day unlocking period, while customers of other mobile carriers are subject to a range of unlocking periods. This lack of consistent regulations leads to asymmetric protections being afforded to consumers based on their mobile provider.

Consumer advocates have long pointed to automatic mobile phone unlocking as an important facilitator of consumer choice in mobile providers, and regulators around the world have enacted regulations to that effect. The FCC itself has acknowledged that a reduced unlocking period is beneficial to consumer choice. There is broad agreement that uniformly applied regulations will promote both consumer choice and industry competition in the mobile marketplace. In this context, the FCC should open a rulemaking to develop a record on its unlocking policy and the policy’s impact on all consumers, including consumers of both postpaid and prepaid plans. It should use this record to inform policies that enable an open and competitive mobile marketplace.