Michael Nagle for The New York Times
For any cellphone user, it has never been a hassle to keep their cellphone number when having to go through the process of switching their wireless carriers. However, keeping an old phone on a new carrier is often a hassle and sometimes not allowed by carriers. A new proposal by the Obama administration and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposes that consumers should be able to switch carriers and keep their old phones.
This proposal comes from the FCC’s current administration under Julius Genachowski after the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress made it illegal for consumers to use unlocking software on their mobile devices to use on a different network. The goal is to ask Congress to overturn the 2011 ruling and allow consumers to move to a different network without the hassle of purchasing a new phone. Advocates for the proposal such as R. David Edelman, a senior White House advisor, believes that such a change would bring consumer choice, competition, and innovation to the market.
These days purchasing an unlocked phone is typically much more expensive to purchase than a phone with a 2-year contract. For example, an unlocked iPhone 5 would amount to $649 while an iPhone held by a contract would amount to $199. Today an unauthorized unlocking of a cellphone, according to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, could lead to a $500,000 fine and up to five year in prison. This specific law was first passed in 1998, over a decade ago and long outdated. While the copyright office reviews their policies every few years, in 2012 they did not review the laws regarding the legalities behind cellphones.
As for now the Library of Congress and the copyright office, both part of the legislative branch, have been urged by the White House and the FCC to review last year’s ruling.
