Verizon Locks Phones for a Year After Trump FCC Rollback
Last week we noted how the Trump FCC, at the direct request of wireless phone giants, destroyed popular rules making it easier and cheaper to switch wireless carriers. The rules, applied via spectrum acquisition and merger conditions, required that Verizon unlock your phone within 60 days after purchase so you could easily switch to competitors.
Verizon, as we’ve long established, hates competition, and promptly got to work lobbying the Trump management to destroy the rules. The pay-to-play Trump administration quickly agreed, and now Verizon has started telling wireless customers they have to wait a year before switching phones after purchasing one from Verizon:
“Verizon was previously required to unlock phones automatically after 60 days due to restrictions imposed on it’s spectrum licenses and merger conditions that helped Verizon obtain approval of its purchase of TracFone. But an update applied today to the TracFone unlocking policy said new phones will be locked for at least a year and that each customer will have to request an unlock instead of getting it automatically.”
Again, these conditions were broadly popular and served the public interest, ensuring that it was easier for consumers to switch between our ever-consolidating, anti-competitive wireless phone giants. Verizon lobbied the FCC by repeatedly lying, without evidence, that these conditions resulted in a wave of black market phone thefts. FCC boss Brendan Carr, ever the in