The US government officially approves cell phone unlocking. U.S. House passed a bill to allow mobile phone and device unlocking. The bill that went to the Senate for consideration months ago is what many U.S. smartphone users have expected it to be. While cell phone unlocking was frowned upon in the past it was not unheard of for U.S. carriers to unlock mobile phones. The first important move in this direction happened with pressure from the FCC as US carriers agreed to unlock customers’ phones.
The problem now is only the process to unlock a mobile phone to allow using SIM cards from other carriers. This process was made to be very complicated and most consumers just end up not even considering it because of this. T-Mobile might very well change this as it is already on the right road. And with some luck other carriers might soon follow.
The application, which is currently available on the Play Store, allows users to do 2 types of unlock: a permanent one and a temporary 30-day unlock. For the temporary unlock users can give as a reason a trip abroad for example. Users are eligible for the full unlock only if their phone was already paid for and if their phone is on the network for at least 40 days.
