Unlocking of new devices to become free in Canada after Feb 2013

The CRTC has had proceedings all week long on the new Mobile Wireless Code they will be making law after Feb 22nd 2013 that will force all Canadian cell carriers to sell their devices unlocked, along with providing 1 and 2 year contracts, possibly making the 3 year contract illegal. Along with forcing the cell carriers to show all their hidden fees and change their wording so that people know exactly what they are getting into when signing up with them.

They have had all the cell companies, one a time, in their sights this week while the CRTC looked at their products and services under a electron microscope asking them questions. They didn't leave any stone un-turned. I listened to it the proceedings from Wednesday on wards, and it was funny to say the least at hearing the BS answers the cell companies were giving the CRTC who acknowledge more than ones their answers were BS. ;)

So what do the device get locked? Well the cell companies believe that locking the devices cuts down on fraud. Yet someone from one of the consumer based agencies who spoke to the CRTC last week said that if someone stole your device they could take anywhere and have it unlocked so he didn't believe locking the device really cut down fraud. When Bell was asked about why the have their devices locked they said the same, to cut down on fraud, and he believe (this a BS answer) that if they didn't require their devices to be locked that they would be last on the list to receive the new hottest devices from the manufacture. When asked if they request the device to be locked or does the manufacture sell them to Bell locked, Bell said they request the device being locked.

The CRTC, and I am not for this because the logistics involved, may separate the sale of the device from the contract, there have been many consumer groups and people who had asked the CRTC to look into this. I am not for it at as I work for an MSP and side the cell companies who say "what stops someone from switching to another carrier with their unlocked device which they are still paying us for and call us saying there is a problem with the device when there is actually a problem with their carriers network?", it would be too much hassle to manage this.

I am looking forward to the unlocking, as paying $30+ to have my new device unlocked is steep. :)

Too late for me I already have mine in hand

Welcome to the fair concurrence world. In France, the principle is : 6 months after you buy a locked new device (kind of "grace period"), operators must unlock them on simple request, for free. Only iphones have a special tax (don't know why, but not surprising). Must say it's cool for consumers but will make some grin ... as unlock business is very juicy ...

The CRTC would impose cell carriers to unlock existing devices as well.

I also failed to mention when Bell Canada said they would likely be the last carrier or country to receive new devices if they were force to provide them unlocked, the CRTC asked Bell to provide evidence of this, to show them when any other carrier in the world has had product held back from the manufacture because they didn't request the devices to be unlocked and Bell's response was silence. :)

Originally Posted by Superfly_FR

Welcome to the fair concurrence world. In France, the principle is : 6 months after you buy a locked new device (kind of "grace period"), operators must unlock them on simple request, for free. Only iphones have a special tax (don't know why, but not surprising). Must say it's cool for consumers but will make some grin ... as unlock business is very juicy ...

Yes this point was actually brought up to the CRTC by one of the consumer groups that spoke in front of the CRTC, it's not just France but other countries as well.

The CRTC is currently looking at excessive and abusive practices by phone service carriers. There are no decisions emanating from that process yet. The intent is too set some boundaries but they have not yet been determined.

Bell charges CAD$75 to unlock a device. Others charge CAD$30 to CAD$40. When Bell was asked why they charged so much an if they thought it was excessive, they said they did not think they charged too much and did not know why others charged less.

Bottom line, locks and excessive fees to unlock are used to tie a customer to a provider. That along with excessively high termination fees, automatic three year contract rollovers, one-sided contract amendments with no notice, Canadians are poorly served but to some extent the authors of their own misfortune. We don't object when subjected to such mistreatment and way too many of us are accepting of poor business practices.

Sometimes the locks make sense when the device is heavily subsidized in the hopes the customer will provide a payback by paying the high monthly usage rates, text fees, data fees and heavy penalties when caps are exceeded. A fair amount would be to charge an unlock fee that should be no more than the balance of the remaining value of the original subsidy. The cost should then be zero at the end of the contract.

So are they getting rid of the 3 year contract? When?

Thanks smoothrunnings, this just sounds way too good to be true tho, are you sure you're not messing with us? lol

I did hear some of the carriers bs on the news the other day, they were saying that they used to offer 1 and 2 year contracts to customers but they just weren't popular. That's because in some cases if you got a 3 year you'd get the phone free, but if you signed a 2 year they'd want you to pay $500. Drove me crazy.

This sounds like pretty good news to me, but I highly doubt it will be in place by Feb 22 2013. If you check out the draft code available on CRTC's website (Read the Draft Code | Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission), it says the code would come in to force 6 months after publishing. Who knows when it will be published.

Originally Posted by Enyigma

A fair amount would be to charge an unlock fee that should be no more than the balance of the remaining value of the original subsidy. The cost should then be zero at the end of the contract.

Yeah but you can get your phone unlocked anywhere, and I think the majority of consumers know this (or would discover it very quickly if they looked into it) so this wouldn't really work.

Originally Posted by jordandrews90

Thanks smoothrunnings, this just sounds way too good to be true tho, are you sure you're not messing with us? lol

I did hear some of the carriers bs on the news the other day, they were saying that they used to offer 1 and 2 year contracts to customers but they just weren't popular. That's because in some cases if you got a 3 year you'd get the phone free, but if you signed a 2 year they'd want you to pay $500. Drove me crazy.

When I first read it I thought he was pulling our leg too.. Haha

And yes, I wonder why 1 and 2 year contracts weren't popular. 3 year = free, 2 year = 400, 1 year = 500.

The big three in Canada have been f*ckin with us for far to long!! If they are going to remove the 3 year contract soon, I am waiting to get my z10.

Originally Posted by jordandrews90

Yeah but you can get your phone unlocked anywhere, and I think the majority of consumers know this (or would discover it very quickly if they looked into it) so this wouldn't really work.

Yes, you can get the unlock done for a lot less elsewhere but you are still stuck with the contract. My point is you should be able to end the contract at a cost not exceeding the balance of the value of the phone. Too many Canadian consumers are unaware of alternative services and just end up paying too much. Once the contract is up, the unlock should be free.

As for me, I'm cheap and am not stuck in one of these usurious contracts. :)

We created thus situation. From the beginning of the cell phone era Canadians were offered 'free' phones and have come to expect that. As tech evolved we have been sheltered from the true cost of phones. And the average consumer believes that a Z10 or iphone 5 is actually only worth 200-300$. As such we have had to pay the true cost of our devices through long pricey contracts. We did this to ourselves.

Originally Posted by JWWDUKE

When I first read it I thought he was pulling our leg too.. Haha

And yes, I wonder why 1 and 2 year contracts weren't popular. 3 year = free, 2 year = 400, 1 year = 500.

The big three in Canada have been f*ckin with us for far to long!! If they are going to remove the 3 year contract soon, I am waiting to get my z10.

If 500 or 400 for a contract, i may as well just buy the phone right out for another couple hundred and not have to worry about a contract anymore. I did that with my 9900. May have to do this with my Z10!

The responses from Bell were truly laughable. Typical arrogant big business BS.

Once my contract is over it is bye bye Bell, they are arrogant A-holes. I hope that they also have to enable APN change functionality.

I am a Canadian and have but up with having Big Red (Rogers), Big Blue (Bell) and Big Green (Telus) holidng us consumers hostage for way too long. They provide Customer Service that in survey after survey is rated as terrible. I would love to see the CRTC restrict the big companies ability to stomp on us their own customers. I am concerned though that the Big Three have too many of our Politicians in their back pocket and that the wireless code won't have any real teeth.
The only way to truly have the Big Three come around and start treating their customers better is to open up our market to some true competition where they have to fight for consumer dollars. As a patriotic Canadian it pains me to say this but we need to open the door to U.S. and International Carriers to operate here in Canada. If AT & T, T-Mobile, Orange, O2, Vodafone et al were to come to our markets it would give the Big Three a wake up call they would have to listen to.

Well this is good news!

Originally Posted by Enyigma

Yes, you can get the unlock done for a lot less elsewhere but you are still stuck with the contract. My point is you should be able to end the contract at a cost not exceeding the balance of the value of the phone. Too many Canadian consumers are unaware of alternative services and just end up paying too much. Once the contract is up, the unlock should be free.

As for me, I'm cheap and am not stuck in one of these usurious contracts. :)

Oh okay, yeah I completely agree with this. I thought you were saying do away with cancellation fee's, and just have an unlock fee equal to the remaining balance of the phone. Which would be awesome but definitely would not work lol

Originally Posted by Tyndale2021

As a patriotic Canadian it pains me to say this but we need to open the door to U.S. and International Carriers to operate here in Canada. If AT & T, T-Mobile, Orange, O2, Vodafone et al were to come to our markets it would give the Big Three a wake up call they would have to listen to.

I know exactly where your coming from. I want them to be successful(and respectful) Canadian companies, but they really need a kick in the a$$, if american carriers moved in there would be a real competition to win customers.

Originally Posted by Tyndale2021

If AT & T, T-Mobile, Orange, O2, Vodafone et al were to come to our markets it would give the Big Three a wake up call they would have to listen to.

I don't know. American carriers are laughably awful as well. They hold up phone launches through extensive testing (ex Z10) and they NEVER update your phone OS. Monthly rates also happen to be sky high compared to Europe as well, many plans costing >$70/month! The only thing we have over Europe is faster data speeds. (The entire "4G" campaign surprisingly struck a chord over here.)

Originally Posted by sentimentGX4

I don't know. American carriers are laughably awful as well. They hold up phone launches through extensive testing (ex Z10) and they NEVER update your phone OS. Monthly rates also happen to be sky high compared to Europe as well, many plans costing >$70/month! The only thing we have over Europe is faster data speeds. (The entire "4G" campaign surprisingly struck a chord over here.)

I guess the grass is always greener...

Originally Posted by Tyndale2021

I am a Canadian and have but up with having Big Red (Rogers), Big Blue (Bell) and Big Green (Telus) holidng us consumers hostage for way too long. They provide Customer Service that in survey after survey is rated as terrible. I would love to see the CRTC restrict the big companies ability to stomp on us their own customers. I am concerned though that the Big Three have too many of our Politicians in their back pocket and that the wireless code won't have any real teeth.
The only way to truly have the Big Three come around and start treating their customers better is to open up our market to some true competition where they have to fight for consumer dollars. As a patriotic Canadian it pains me to say this but we need to open the door to U.S. and International Carriers to operate here in Canada. If AT & T, T-Mobile, Orange, O2, Vodafone et al were to come to our markets it would give the Big Three a wake up call they would have to listen to.

the Royal Bank has been trying to get into selling phones or phone service, not sure you would want more big companies to dominate Canadians even more,
but Canada is a big country so it does take a lot to cover the whole country, that is why you end up with those big giants....

That is great news. Being able to have an unlocked phone for travelling would be great. I bought a US roaming package from one of the big three for a recent business trip. It still ended up costing me around $350 for the month and that's with my Bold 9900 and data compression. I am fortunate that I get compensated by my business but that is insane. When phone bills start getting into the range of car payements, partial mortgage payments etc something needs to be done. I hope they actually follow through and make some changes.