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O2 Contract Ends December... Can I legally unlock?
- Thread starter amirite
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Weather or not the network is legally obliged to unlock your phone depends on what country you're in, but I don't think unlocking your own phone is illegal in many countries.
In most of the EU, carriers must unlock your phone at the end of the contract. However, in the UK Ofcom (in their great wisdom) removed that rule so that carriers do not have to unlock your phone.
So no. It's prefectly legal for O2 to refuse to unlock your iPhone at the end of the contract.
So no. It's prefectly legal for O2 to refuse to unlock your iPhone at the end of the contract.
Most of the EU countries DON'T have such regulations --- the carriers are giving out unlocking codes voluntarily.
Somehow --- UK ended up with the cheapest iphone plans in the G7, ended up with the only G7 country with 5 national carriers, ended up with the largest UK carrier with only 27% of the UK mobile market.
You Brits are living in paradise.
Our situation with phones is a lot better then the US', for example we don't pay for incoming calls and texts and have much better prepay deals. You're getting screwed by the phone companies over there!
The amount of UK carriers came to be before Ofcom were created.
I stick by my assertion that Ofcom are cretins.
Phazer
There have been some UK networks created after Ofcom was created, such as Talk Talk Mobile (formally Fresh) and I think Tesco Mobile too.
Nope, they're just resellers of other networks, not actual networks. Talk Talk resells T-mobile and Tesco resell O2.
The last network to be created in the UK was 3, which launched 9 months before Ofcom were given their statutory powers under the Communications Act.
Phazer
Where in the U.S because I live in Virginia these days and get great coverage.When I go back home my coverage is great in Maryland.The whole crappy service argument is very false for the most part.
Let's look at the European countries that sell iPhones. There are 56 of them.
Of those 56 carriers, 40 of them sell them initially locked to the carrier - so 16 carriers sell factory-unlocked iPhones. How many of those 16 carriers are required to do so due to government regulation, and how many of them are not required to so do, but choose to voluntarily or due to marketplace pressure?
Of those 40 carriers who sell the iPhone initially locked, 21 carriers will unlock the iPhones later on under certain circumstances - so 19 carriers refuse to unlock the iPhone under any circumstance. How many of those 21 carriers are required to provide an unlocking service due to government regulation, and how many of them are not required to do so, but choose to voluntarily or due to marketplace pressure?
You're the one making the claim, so hopefully you can back it up with numbers.
Ofcom has been considering whether to move to US style "bill and keep" mobile termination rates --- which would mean charging for incoming calls and text --- because in the long run, the general public is getting a better deal with the US model.
Just look at the recent OECD report --- the average American talks 800 minutes (incoming and outgoing), and 400 SMS (incoming and outgoing) per MONTH on the mobile phones. Even cutting those numbers by half to account for the European style of free incoming --- that's 400 outgoing minutes and 200 outgoing SMS per MONTH. The OECD (basically the richest 30 countries in the world) has in their report that said the average medium usage is 65 outgoing minutes and 50 outgoing SMS per MONTH.
What the hell is the cell phone good for if you don't use them? The average American talks 6x more outgoing minutes and 4x more SMS per month than the average OECD countries.
Oftel/Ofcom is basically the same organization --- just a changed name.
Besides that, Ofcom still has a say in telecom mergers.
In Europe (western Europe anyway), there are basically ZERO country that requires carriers to sell you an unlocked phone from the beginning. Yes, there are countries like France and Italy that requires unlocking codes be provided free of charge at the end of x months, but that doesn't mean that these carriers have to sell unlocked phones from the beginning. Belgium WAS the only country that outright banned simlocked phones --- but that law was stricken down by the European Court of Justice.
Germany, Portugal, Spain and Netherlands --- don't have laws that requires unlocking at the end of contract.
Don't know much about the eastern European countries --- quite a few of these countries don't have much rule of law and the regulators just announce decrees without much justifications.
My point is that before the iphone was launched in Europe --- most of the world THOUGHT that the whole continent is blanketed with iron-clad simlocking laws, which turned out to be false. Sure mobile carriers after carriers sell unlocked phones, but that doesn't automatically means that they are doing it because they are being forced to. Same thing with providing unlocking codes at the end of contracts.
I hope they don't do that!
Why not?
You are already "paying for" your incoming calls --- it's just hidden away from the billing. $10 for 100 minutes of outgoing calls with free incoming calls vs. $10 for 250 minutes of incoming/outgoing calls --- which deal is better.
This is what Ofcom and EC Commissioner Viviane Reding have been studying ---- when they look at US mobile usage.
What if you generally only receive calls and hardly ever make them? My bill would increase. Plus, if I run out of credit, people wouldn't even be able to call me!
It's the law of the averages --- when you look at the entire country's population, the incoming and outgoing calls will average out to 50-50.
If that happens I'll stop topping up my phone then, my free data will still work for my e-mail and such.
I don't see any reason to go that way --- your money will go further with the US style billing.
Remember Americans are the one nation that is Blackberry crazy --- so their usage statistics against the rest of the OECD countries are even more extreme: 6x more voice minutes, 4x more SMS and a nation of Blackberry users who do emails instead of SMS.
You can read the actual OECD report.
http://browse.oecdbookshop.org/oecd/pdfs/browseit/9309031E.PDF
Go to page 275:
“It is important to note again that the OECD calling pattern in the basket can be significantly different than common calling profiles in a specific country. For example, the high-usage OECD basket includes 1,680 outgoing voice calls per year while users in the United States average 9,600 minutes of voice calls (combined incoming and outgoing) per year. In this case the basket provides the cost of buying exactly the calls and messages in the OECD basket rather than what may be considered a ‘typical’ bundle in the market.”
The average American (4800 outgoing minutes per year) talks 3x more than the OECD's "heavy high usage". The average American talks 6x more than the OECD's average "medium usage".
They are basically classifying a Mini Cooper as the size of an average family car.
And when you go to page 297 and page 298 --- you will find that OECD use the AT&T Wireless Nations 450 Messaging 200 for both medium and high usage. Samething for Canada as well, OECD uses the same Bell Mobility package for the same price for both medium and high usage. Now you know why the OECD report is flawed.
