[Vision2020] Bill Allowing Americans To Unlock Cellphones Passes House, Heads To Obama

[Kenneth Marcy]

Bill Allowing Americans To Unlock Cellphones Passes House, Heads To Obama

July 25, 20144:49 PM ET

Approving a bill that has already passed the Senate, the House of 
Representatives has given its consent to legislation that lets U.S. 
consumers "unlock" their cellphones, rather than having them remain 
linked to specific service providers.

President Obama says he will sign the bill into law, applauding Congress 
today for taking "another step toward giving ordinary Americans more 
flexibility and choice, so that they can find a cellphone carrier that 
meets their needs and their budget."

The Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act, sponsored by 
Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., was passed by a vote of 295 to 114 Friday; 
the Senate version, championed by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., was 
approved 10 days ago.

The legislation repeals a recent ruling by the Library of Congress that 
found copyright laws could be strictly enforced over "locked" phones 
because of evolution in the cellphone marketplace.

But critics had said the rule hurt several groups of consumers: those 
who wanted to link their phones to overseas carriers when they traveled; 
those who wanted to switch carriers; and those who wanted to sell phones 
they've bought through a wireless company.

After today's House vote, Laura Moy, staff attorney at advocacy group 
Public Knowledge, said the new law would boost competition in the 
wireless market and "improve the availability of free and low-cost 
secondhand phones for consumers who cannot afford to purchase new devices."

She also said "it will keep millions of devices out of landfills."

The new law would re-establish an exemption to a section of the Digital 
Millennium Copyright Act that prohibited unlocking a phone. The bill 
also directs the Librarian of Congress to review whether the exemption 
should apply to tablets and other devices as well as phones.

In February 2013, a public petition to legalize "unlocking" phones blew 
past the White House's 100,000-signature threshold that requires a 
response; later that year, President Obama asked the Federal 
Communications Commission to legalize the practice.

As NPR's Laura Sydell has reported, the FCC agreed on terms with 
wireless carriers in December, in a deal that would require companies 
such as AT&T and Verizon to unlock a phone from their networks, but only 
if a customer asks them to --- and only if their contract has ended.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/07/25/335351105/bill-allowing-americans-to-unlock-cellphones-passes-house-heads-to-obama 



Ken

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