Advocacy group encourages FCC to support policies that prevent phone locking

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

FCC phone locking letter overview: 

• Who: Public advocacy group Public Knowledge has asked the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) to back policies that would prevent wireless carriers from being able to lock cell phones into their networks. 
• Why: Public Knowledge argues the practice of locking devices hurts smaller carriers and consumers. 
• Where: The FCC regulates wireless carriers nationwide. 

Public advocacy group Public Knowledge has asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to back policies aimed at keeping wireless carriers from being allowed to lock their cell phone devices into their services. 

Public Knowledge argues that the practice harms competition by creating entry barriers for smaller carriers and negatively affects consumers by making it harder for them to change carriers. 

The public advocacy group also argues that the practice of locking phones into a specific wireless carrier limits the amount available for purchase on the secondary market. 

“Smaller carriers, new entrants and MVNOs [mobile virtual network operators] in particular may be disadvantaged in the marketplace due to a lack of handset availability,” Public Knowledge writes in a letter addressed to FCC Secretary Marlene H. Dortch. 

Public Knowledge Senior Staff Attorney John Bergmayer wrote the FCC phone locking letter, which says consumers with smaller carriers are forced to choose between buying a phone that was “not their top preference” or “having to switch to a major carrier.” 

Public Knowledge argues low-income consumers ‘disadvantaged’ by phone locking 

“Low-income customers are also disadvantaged by phone locking,” Bergmayer writes in the FCC phone locking letter. “An increase in unlocked phones would allow subscribers to save money on handsets and increase wireless competition, benefiting all wireless users.”

Public Knowledge’s comments come amidst an every-other-year probe by the FCC, which began this year in May, into the State of Competition in the Communications Marketplace, Law360 reports. 

The public advocacy group also requests more information on the role embedded subscriber identity modules will play in competition in the industry, while asking the FCC to consider their impacts in its upcoming report. 

Public Knowledge also says it wants the FCC to report on “the beneficial effects of open spectrum on competition” while declaring the group had “outlined how a balanced spectrum policy and expanded access to unlicensed and shared bands will further competition in the marketplace.”

In August, the FCC asked top U.S. mobile carriers Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile to share info about their geolocation data privacy practices. 

Do you agree that wireless carriers should not be allowed to lock cell phones into their services? Let us know in the comments! 

Read About More Class Action Lawsuits & Class Action Settlements:

• FCC to assess the geographic accuracy of Wireless Emergency Alerts during local tests
• Top mobile carriers including Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile share data privacy practices
• Twitter class action alleges social network misled investors regarding company performance
• AT&T class action claims T-Mobile falsely advertises that AT&T bans senior discount