Unlocking Of Phones After The Lock-In Period Is Now Mandatory According To NTC
PHONE UNLOCKING – After the lock-in period, phones are now required by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to be unlocked.
Laws on mobile phones’ service providers are being continuously updated. Years ago, a bill was proposed with intentions to lower the cost of mobile phone services by service providers.
Recently, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has released guidelines regarding the mandatory phone unlocking after the given ‘lock-in’ period. This would enable the users to have the freedom to select service providers to operate on their mobile devices.
On May 31, the NTC signed the Memorandum Circular 01-05-2019 – which presents new rules and regulatory orders for Public Telco Entities (PTEs) regarding the mandatory phone unlocking after the lock-in period. As well as the compliance with the set conditions that comes with the subscription agreement.
The Memorandum Circular mandates that PTEs should post the “clear, concise, and readily accessible policy on mobile phone or device unlocking” on their official websites.
PTEs are also required to work on unlocking the phones or provide the needed information for the unlocking of devices following the completion of the “postpaid service contract, financing plan, or payment of an applicable early termination fee” upon client’s request.
This is according to an article from PhilStar.
The Memorandum Circular also mentioned the PTEs obligation to notify customers of the new policy in the statement:
“PTEs that lock devices shall clearly notify customers that their devices are eligible for unlocking at the time when their devices are eligible for unlocking or automatically unlock devices remotely when devices are eligible for unlocking, without additional fee.”
That is all tehre is to it, at least for now. We’ll post updates as soon as we got them.
