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Oftel’s
policy on SIM locking
Key points
- SIM locking
is permitted under current EU and Oftel guidelines as mobiles
sold are subsidised - therefore it is allowable for the mobile
companies to recover the associated cost of subsidising the mobile
phones sold.
- However,
mobiles should be able to be unlocked once the subsidy has been
recovered. This should generally be within a year if not before.
- ·
Charging for the associated admin costs of unlocking a mobile
is acceptable, but customers should not expect to pay more than
£30 + VAT
Mobile phone
companies often lock mobile handsets to their own network to give
a better guarantee of recovering the cost of handset subsidies and
other customer acquisition costs. The main providers' locking policies
are described below.
Mobile providers'
handset locking policies
(November 2002)
|
Vodafone
|
|
Lock-in
period
|
Fee
|
What's
locked?
|
| Unlock
at any time, but only pay the fee if unlock within first year
|
£19.99 |
Pre-pay
& a minority of contract phones |
|
O2
|
|
Lock-in
period
|
Fee
|
What's
locked?
|
| 12
months |
£15 |
Prepay
& a minority of contract phones |
|
T-Mobile
|
|
Lock-in
period
|
Fee
|
What's
locked?
|
| Prepay
3 months, contract 1 month |
£15 |
Prepay
&
Contract phones
|
|
Orange
|
|
Lock-in
period
|
Fee
|
What's
locked?
|
| Unlock
at any time |
£23.25 |
Prepay
&
Contract phones
|
|
Virgin
Mobile
|
|
Lock-in
period
|
Fee
|
What's
locked?
|
| Unlock
once customer has spent £30 on Virgin Mobile airtime |
Free |
Prepay
& pay monthly phones |
Contract customers
typically must also pay the outstanding subscriptions for the remaining
period of the contract before being unlocked.
Oftel investigated
SIM locking in 2001-2 and reviewed its policy. Oftel concluded that
its concerns could best be met by improvements in customer awareness
of locking policies, which has been weak. Oftel has made it clear
to mobile operators that it expects customers advice to improve,
and has asked mobile providers to show how they will ensure adequate
customer awareness of SIM locking restrictions.
Oftel advises
consumers interested in unlocking their phones to ask their mobile
provider about unlocking fees and the minimum locking period. However,
if a consumer feels that these details were not made clear at the
time of purchase or feels misled in any way when purchasing the
mobile, then we would advise that they to talk to their local Trading
Standards Department.
There are now
no specific guidelines relating to the mobile companies' policies,
in terms of the length of locking period and the charges for unlocking.
Oftel decided that setting particular conditions for SIM locking
would be less effective than customer pressure on the mobile companies:
properly informed customers can select a provider bearing in mind
the importance of locking restrictions to them, rather than Oftel
setting
(If you have
been following the steps to contact Oftel and this FAQ has not helped
then proceed to Step
3)
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