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This document created atSep 14, 2016, 1:19:32 PM and modified atDec 9, 2022, 5:08:01 AM.
Many countries listed below have some form of SIM-locking laws specifying the period of SIM locking and the cost of obtaining unlocking codes.
Andorra
In Andorra, the state-owned communications mobile company Mobiland does not sell SIM-locked phones. As there is no competition, consumers usually buy standard mobile phones that are not locked to any specific carrier.
Austria
In Austria, unlocking is allowed at any time by the owner of the device. A lawsuit was decided in favor of a mobile operator who encouraged the unlocking of phones by providing links to free/cheap unlocking services.[10]
T-Mobile Austria charges 150 euros to unlock the iPhone for prepaid subscribers and in contract subscribers. For subscribers who have finished their 2-year iPhone contract, T-Mobile Austria charges 50 euros to unlock the iPhone.[11]
Australia
In Australia, carriers can choose whether to SIM/Network Lock handsets or not and usually tend to only SIM/Network lock prepaid handsets. There does not appear to be any regulation or law on SIM locking in Australia.
One law professor, Dale Clapperton, gave a talk stating that bundling iPhone and mobile phone service could be a violation of the Trade Practices Act.[12] However, no other legal professional or academic has come out in support of this viewpoint.[13] This also doesn't address SIM locking per se, only as applied to subsidised iPhone purchases, and persistence of the lock beyond the contractual period.
Belgium
Until 2007 Belgium had laws prohibiting bundling, but they were challenged as violating EuropeanDirective 2005/29/EC The Unfair Commercial Practices Directive.
On April 23, 2009, theEuropean Court of Justice ruled against Belgium and struck down Belgium's anti-bundling law.[14] The Belgian government was given until May 2009 to change the law, failing which the European Commission would commence proceedings against Belgium.
This leaves China, Singapore and Israel as the only countries in the world that forbid SIM locking and contract/phone bundling outright.[15] Chile initiated a ban as of January 1, 2012.
Brazil
In Brazil, SIM locks are not prohibited. However, the mobile carrier must inform the consumer of the existence of a SIM lock. Anatel, Brazil's telecom regulator, requires the carrier to unlock free of charge the mobile phone if required by the user. After this regulation most telecom operators started voluntarily unlocking the devices as soon as it was purchased so one could leave the store with an unlocked phone.[16]
Canada
On June 3, 2013, theCanadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission announced[17] a new wireless code[18] which encompasses a variety of consumer benefits, including the right of consumers to "have their cellphones unlocked after 90 days, or immediately if they paid for the device in full". The code is effective 2013-12-02.
China
Under a regulation enacted by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, locking phones to a specific carrier is prohibited if other carriers are also using the same type of network technology. Therefore, all phones approved to be sold in China are never locked to begin with regardless of whether the consumer purchased the phone under a contract or not. However, since all three Chinese carriers each uses a different network technology after the adoption of 3G, carriers started to ask phone manufacturers to disable support for network technologies not used by such carrier even if the phone has been originally designed to be capable of supporting those network technologies. Such a move does not result in violation of the ban on phone locking. For example, an iPhone 6 was designed to be capable of supporting LTE FDD, LTE TD, CDMA, and WCDMA technologies but China Mobile reached a deal with Apple to create a special model for China Mobile in addition to the off-contract retail model sold by Apple and third party vendors with the capability to support LTE FDD, CDMA, WCDMA, which are the technologies not used by China Mobile, disabled, effectively making such special contract model incompatible with the 3G and 4G networks of other carriers even though such phones are never locked.
Colombia
Starting October 1, 2011, all the mobile telephone services providers, must sell to all users unlocked devices and provide free of charge support to unlock previously sold devices. This regulation was ordered to enablemobile number portability and to facilitate the reduction on costs ordered simultaneously.[19]
Chile
Since Chile 1 January 2012, newly sold phones must be unlocked. Previously bought locked phones had to be unlocked for free. The regulation was put in place in order to implementmobile number portability. [20] However, the law only requires phones to be usable with all Chilean providers. It does not cover international unlocking for use outside Chile, so users may have to pay for the unlocking service.
Croatia
In Croatia, for devices bought on contract, the mobile operator must provide the unlock code on the user's request free of charge. Such request can be made immediately after buying the phone, and the operator has a 15-day period to fulfill the request. For devices bought on a prepaid plan, the user has to wait at least 12 months before submitting such request.[21]
Denmark
The carrier can choose to bind contracts up to 6 months from the contract's start. Many of the carriers choose not to lock the phones. Only Hi3G ("3") lock their phones, but can only do so for six months.[22] If the phone needs to be unlocked within the first six months, the carrier can charge DKK 500 (~ €67)[22] for the unlock. After six months, the carrier is obliged by law to unlock the phone free of charge. But the consumer needs to contact the original supplier, and provide the IMEI and original phone number for which the phone was sold.
Ecuador
Although there is no specific law preventing SIM locking, as of December 2009 Ecuador's two biggest carriers, Porta and Movistar, unlock phones previously sold by them, without charge.[23]
European Union
Countries in the European Union (EU) each have their own legislation on SIM locking, but must comply with the EUUnfair Commercial Practices Directive (Directive 2005/29/EC of 2005). As noted above, this directive has been successfully applied in Belgium to overturn that country's previous ban on bundling phones with contracts. However, carriers in many countries in the EU do not necessarily associate a phone's SIM lock status to the customer's tie-in contract status.
Finland
In Finland, carriers are not allowed to sell SIM-locked GSM phones, nor are they allowed to offer tie-in sales on GSM equipment. Under Finnish law, a tie-in sale is defined as selling the equipment for a discounted price contingent on the consumer also acquiring a new service contract from the seller. Under the terms of a provisional exception, valid from 2006 until 2009, tie-in sales were permitted with 3G handsets, and 3G equipment which is purchased under such tie-in sales may be SIM-locked. The SIM lock must be removed free of charge at the conclusion of the tie-in contract, within a maximum duration of 2 years.[24] In 2008, the Finnish government was preparing to extend the exception, and at the same time, was considering reducing the duration of tie-in contracts to one year.[25]
France
In France, SIM locks are not prohibited. However, the mobile operator must inform the consumer of the existence of a SIM lock, and the subscriber has the right to request that the lock be removed at any time. No later than three months after the subscription of the contract, the mobile operator must "systematically and free of charge" provide the subscriber with a procedure to deactivate the SIM lock. Proposal to shorten the time that operators may charge a fee for removing the SIM lock prior from six-month to the three-month deadline.[26]
Germany
In Germany, there does not appear to be any effective law regulating SIM locking. For example, the iPhone was initially offered for sale in Germany exclusively through T-Mobile, and it was locked to T-Mobile's network. They began to provide unlocking codes for that phone after they were sued by Vodafone and a temporary injunction was issued requiring T-Mobile to do so. Vodafone's injunction was later overturned, and the iPhone is again available exclusively locked to T-Mobile.[27] While T-Mobile Germany told the court that they would unlock the iPhone after the contract, they were doing it voluntarily.
While SIM locking is legal, a court ruled in 2012 that providers must clearly inform potential customers about the SIM lock.[28]
As of 2015, usually only prepaid mobile phones are sold with a SIM lock. Phones sold with a contract stipulating monthly payments are not typically locked (as the monthly payments are due no matter what network the phone is used on). Also, most providers will unlock the phone on demand. Usually a fee is charged during the first two years after purchase; afterwards the unlocking is free.
Honduras
In Honduras, there is a general law applicable to all consumer relations engaged in the national territory and provided by natural or legal persons, public or private. This law is called "Ley de Proteccion al Consumidor"[29] or "Consumer Protection Act of Honduras", approved by Legislative Decree No.24-2008, and it regulates the activities of any goods and services providers stating the principles that they must follow in order to operate in this country.
Article 20 of this law states the prohibitions that sellers are obliged to abide when selling a good or providing a service to people. Paragraph 7 of this article states that it is prohibited to a provider to "place seals, adhesives, duct tapes or analogous mechanisms, which prevent the consumer to make free use of the product, except those mechanisms used by the manufacturer for warranty purposes;".
Even though the existence of this law, local carriers continue to apply SIM restrictions to the phones they sell. For example, the iPhone is sold by Claro in Honduras and is SIM-locked,.[30] which suggests that this general consumer protection law does not prohibit SIM locking of cell phones
Hong Kong
In Hong Kong, carriers are not allowed to SIM-lock a phone for the sole purpose of tying customers to their network. But Hong Kong carriers can SIM-lock a phone to protect the handset subsidy, to enforce mobile plan contracts or to protect from theft.[31] After the initial purchase subsidy has been recovered, or the full cost of the equipment has been paid up under a rental or installment agreement, the carrier must provide a detailed procedure for unlocking the equipment free of charge upon request.
India
SIM locking is not common in India. Initially, each state in India had a differentmobile network operator and roaming across states was prohibitive. It was cheaper to change theSIM card than pay highroaming charges. The number of inter-state travelers demanded unlocked phones. Usually, phones and SIM cards are sold separately. Mobile phone manufacturers sell phones directly to customers rather than through network operators.Dual SIM phones are quite common in use, with users choosing to make calls using a cheaper operator suitable for the particular call and time of the day from a Dual SIM phone without even switching it off. This along with other factors, encouraged competition among network operators and brought down the mobile phone call charges in from the initial ₹32 (US$0.75) in 1996 to ₹0.50 (US$0.005 approx.) in 2011. The rates still differ from one service provider to another and across different tariff schemes provided by the same operator.Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is the independentregulator of thetelecommunications business inIndia,[32] established to check call rates and resolve all communication related issues and holds the upper hand in fixing call rates.
Israel
According to the Arrangements Law passed on December 29, 2010, Israeli carriers are banned from locking handsets sold by them, and are obligated to unlock any handset previously sold at no charge.[33]
Italy
Italy has SIM locking laws requiring that carriers must specify the amount of subsidies, and allow subscribers to obtain unlocking codes after nine months by paying half of the listed subsidies. After 18 months, the SIM lock must be removed.[34]
Netherland
Dutch mobile carriers have an agreement [35] with the Netherlands' telecom regulator, OPTA, to establish a code of conduct [36] with respect to SIM locking — specifically, unlocking fees can be charged within the first 12 months and SIM lock cannot last longer than 12 months.[37]
In a 2002 letter to the Dutch Secretary of State of Economic Affairs, OPTA stated that the telecom regulator has decided to start working on the formalization of the voluntary code of conduct into legislation.[38] However, a 2006 report written by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs,[39] stated that competition in the Dutch mobile market is sufficient and the formalization of the voluntary code of conduct into legislation is not needed. Thus there are no SIM locking laws in the Netherlands.[40]
New Zealand
Locking had occurred in New Zealand only to a limited degree before May 2008[41] when Vodafone New Zealand announced they would begin locking handsets and charge $50 to unlock them. It is speculated that locking began due to the fact Telecom New Zealand were building their new XT Mobile Network based on UMTS technology, allowing handsets to change networks for the first time as Telecom's existing network (the only other network at that time) was based on CDMA technology.2degrees were also building their mobile network at this time. After pressure from theCommerce Commission, Vodafone relented on its locking policy and will unlock any locked phones for free once they have been owned for nine months. You can pay to have it unlocked prior to this.[42][43] Following speculation of a new lower cost,MNVO of Telecom XT details were leaked regarding the Skinny Mobile Network, which would SIM lock handsets.
As of 2015, Vodafone, 2Degrees and Skinny all charge a $30 unlock fee for phones owned for less than 9 months.
Pakistan
Ufone has started SIM Locking with the release of its new smartphone named Smart U5 developed by Emitac Services, UAE. U5 comes SIM locked to Ufone only. No other SIM can be used on the U5.
Peru
According to OSIPTEL Peru's telecom regulator, article 23 of the Terms of use, mobile carriers can sell phones locked for a lower price for 12, 18 or 24-month contracts, but also must sell unlocked devices for the full price. The same article dictates the customer can request the unlock code for free after 12 months from the purchase date, no matter if the contract is still in place. The sole exception is if the customer cancels the contract before its end and pays the remaining cost, at which point the customer can request the device be unlocked at any time. OSIPTEL plans to reduce the time customers must wait to remove their sim locks to 6 months.
Portugal
A 2006 study sponsored by the Portugal regulator,ANACOM, on handset subsidies and SIM locking concluded that there are no special regulatory concerns on offering subsidized SIM-locked equipment in exchange for signing a contract tying a customer to a particular network. Network providers are allowed to apply SIM locks as they see fit, and they may voluntarily remove them if they choose to do so. In the paper, the author stated that the average unlocking fee charged by Portuguese carriers is 90-100 euros.[44] A recently approved law [45] requires network operators to unlock a device free of charge if the respective contract has already expired (But they refuse to do so charging at least 10 euros). It also establishes limits to the fees that operators may charge to unlock a device while it is still under contract.
Romania
Romanian telecom regulator ANCOM signed a code of conduct with several Romanian carriers providing that as of September 1, 2009 mobile operators selling handsets locked within their own network have to inform clients whether the handset is locked and provide unlocking upon request. It is "self-regulation" by the carriers to prevent the regulator from actually imposing regulations on them. If the handset is not purchased together with other electronic communications services, the mobile telephony operator that sells it will bear the unlocking costs and will not bind the terminal unlocking by the purchase of other services or by the payment of other fees.
If the handset is purchased as part of a promotional package or at a preferential price and the customer requires the unlocking before the expiry of the minimum period provided in the contract for communications services concluded with the operator, the customer will have to pay both the unlocking fee and the penalty for the anticipated unlocking of the handset. The price charged to unlock handsets will not exceed the costs of this operation and operators are obliged to meet unlocking requests within 15 days.[46]
Singapore
Singapore is the first country that forbids outright SIM locking and contract/phone bundling. Singapore's telecommunications regulator has ruled that the competition clause in mobile carriers' licenses means SIM-locking is not allowed, and has warned at least one operator for selling SIM-locked phones [47]
Spain
In 1998, the Spanish telecom regulator, Comisión del Mercado de las Telecomunicaciones, saw that Spanish mobile carriers already provided unlocking codes voluntarily for a fee within the first 12 months and for free after 12 months, so CMT decided not to put any legal framework in Spain.[48] CMT has not revisited this decision since then, therefore there are no SIM-locking laws in Spain.
Sweden
In Sweden, carriers are required to unlock handsets after 12 months since purchase. This applies both to on-contract and pay as you go phones. All carriers will charge a fee of 300 SEK (approximately $45) or 350 SEK (approximately $50),depending on carrier, to unlock the handset. However, as of 2016, most carriers have stopped locking phones altogether.
Thailand
Thailand is also another country that forbids outright SIM locking and as a result, no phones are sold in the market are subsidized by carriers. Up until recently mobile phone manufacturers have their own store fronts and mobile carriers are only the service providers.
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, mobile phone network providers are not obliged to provide unlocking, even after the end of the contract. Ofcom, UK's telecom regulator, allowed 3 UK to sell a mobile phone with the SIM card permanently superglued to the phone.[49] Most operators offer some form of unlocking service, depending on the state of the contract and the model of phone, but usually for a charge. The fullOftel 2002 SIM-lock position paper specifies that there is no SIM-locking law in the UK; the regulator wants only "consumer awareness". The examples within the position paper are just "examples" of current carrier practices for illustration purposes, but do not reflect any official Oftel regulation.[50] The main networks often agree to unlock handsets for a charge, either at the end of a contract or, for prepaid handsets, after several months. Some Blackberry handsets supplied by Vodafone (e.g., Storm)[51] are examples of a UK carrier not offering unlocking codes. As of April 2011 O2 will unlock any of their pay-monthly phones for free, even if they're still in contract, with the exception of handsets made exclusively for them, such as their Palm devices.[citation needed] Carphone Warehouse, one of the largest UK phone retailers, offers unlocked phones with most PAYG deals.[citation needed]
United States
One of the two United States GSM carriers, T-Mobile,[52] will unlock handsets for those with active account in good standing for at least 40 days and no unlock code request in the last 90 days. The other, AT&T Mobility, is required to do so upon request (with some exceptions and requirements after ninety days of active service) under the terms of a class action settlement negotiated by Scott A Bursor'sclass action law firm.[53] Prior to the settlement, AT&T would [54] usually do so once one has concluded their contract, and in some other situations. AT&T had in the past stated that it would not unlock iPhones under any circumstances, regardless of the legality of doing so, even after customers are out of contract. However, AT&T has since announced that starting April 8, 2012, it will begin unlocking off-contract iPhones, provided that the customer's account is in good standing.[55] AT&T also has an unannounced policy of unlocking iPhones for United States service members who are deployed overseas—even if they are still under contract.[56]
Before carriers began voluntarily providing unlock codes for all phone models, in 2010 theElectronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) successfully convinced the U.S. Copyright Office to allow an exemption to the general prohibition on circumvention of copyright protection systems under theDigital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 for unlocking of phones through user self-help (sometimes referred to as "hacking").[57] This exemption has become less important now that most carriers are voluntarily providing unlock codes.
According to a ruling effective October 28, 2012, it will be illegal to unlock phones purchased 90 days after this date or later without the carrier's permission.[58] In other words, users can already unlock phones they already own, and phones purchased before January 29, 2013, but phones purchased after this point can only be unlocked with the carrier's permission.
In March 2013, the Obama administration and the Federal Communications Commission said consumers should also be able to switch carriers and keep their actual phones.[59]
On August 1, 2014, President Obama signed into law theUnlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act (S. 517; 113th Congress), a bill legalizing unlocking cellphones in the U.S.[60][61] The bill passed in the United States Senate on July 15, 2014, and in the United States House of Representatives on July 25, 2014.
Recently, a few carriers such as Sprint have agreed to allow domestic unlocking on all mobile devices launched and after February 15, 2015.[62]
It is possible to buy unlocked phones in the US. Some online retailers sell phones that come unlocked from the manufacturer, that is, they were never locked in the first place.
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