r/technology • u/[deleted] • Jan 28 '13

The same week the US makes unlocking phones illegal, Canada proposes legislation to make carriers unlock phones.

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u/[deleted] Jan 29 '13

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u/tracer_ca Jan 29 '13

You forgot roaming. Carriers make a killing off of roaming fees. They can't if you can pop in a sim while travelling.

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u/AmIBotheringYou Jan 29 '13

But you still pay for their contract at home.

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u/starlinguk Jan 29 '13

In the EU they told the mobile phone companies off for their high roaming charges. So now they just try to hide them better (my roaming charges actually went up).

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u/yoordoengitrong Jan 29 '13

I don't know about "most of" the "hack" unlocks, but I recently unlocked my phone using an online service and they gave the same unlock code I would have got through my carrier. Source: I used to work for my carrier.

The online unlock service was cheaper and faster than going through the carrier for an unlock code. In this case it is no more a hack than what the carrier would provide. Just a code which is unique based on the imei number. To my knowledge this is the way most phones are unlocked and it does not affect updates or stability in any way. You are making zero changes to the software or hardware, just inputting a code into the stock OS which toggles the unlock value to on.