Just last week we reported that thanks to a collection of over 100,000 petition signatures, it forced the Obama administration to sit up and take notice of the fact that there are many cellphone users out there not happy with how cellphone unlocking has been made illegal. Now the good news is that thanks to a group of US Senators, back by Al Franken and members of the senate Judiciary Committee, a new bill has been introduced that will allow cellphone users to unlock their devices legally once their contract has expired.
Dubbed the Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act, this would basically reverse a ruling by the Library of Congress from back in 2012 that made the unlocking of cellphones illegal. For those who haven’t been following the news, what this meant is that when your contract expires with a carrier and you ask them to unlock your device and they refuse (which they are allowed to do), unlocking it yourself would be considered to be an illegal move and could land you in hot water. This ruling came into effect on the 26th of January earlier this year, so hopefully with the introduction of this new bill, cellphone unlocking will be made legal in the near future.
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