Obama Administration Files Petition To The FCC: Urges Carriers To Unlock Mobile Devices

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The White House filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday requesting that all wireless carriers be required to unlock all mobile devices so that consumers can easily switch between carriers. The petition comes several months after the Obama administration first urged for legislation to unlock cellphones.

After the Library of Congress made the unlocking practice illegal in January when an exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act expired, angry activists took their complaints online. Over 114,000 people posted their complaints on the White House’s protest forum in an effort to overturn the Library of Congress decision. The Obama administration agreed that consumers should be allowed to own “unlocked” devices and the FCC also released public statements showing their support for smartphone unlocking.

In Tuesday’s petition to the FCC, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) said that allowing unlocked devices would increase competition and consumer choice, while also putting the burden of changing networks on companies rather than consumers.

“Americans should be able to use their mobile devices on whatever networks they choose and have their devices unlocked without hassle,” said Lawrence Strickling, assistant secretary of the NTIA.

The proposal is encouraging because it seeks to expand unlocking capabilities to more consumers and more wireless devices — including tablets. Consumers need a solution to this problem, and we hope that lawmakers and regulators can work to solve this important consumer issue.

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3 thoughts on “Obama Administration Files Petition To The FCC: Urges Carriers To Unlock Mobile Devices”

  2. Shod Pell

    What? The NSA not getting enough data from our phones now or is it some won’t let the cameras and mics come on by remote?

    Reply
  3. clementinesalmassi321

    My Uncle Harrison just got a fantastic white Acura ILX Hybrid by
    working parttime off of a computer… read J­a­m­2­0­.­ℂ­o­m

    Reply

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