T-Mobile: Unlocking Phones After 60 Days a ‘Major Question’
The FCC proposed a phone unlocking mandate in July.
Jake Neenan
WASHINGTON, September 17, 2024 – The Supreme Court’s major questions rule has been making life a bit more difficult at the Federal Communications Commission. T-Mobile met with agency staff last week to reiterate its position that the rule would block a planned phone unlocking mandate.
“[T]he Commission fails to point to specific statutory authorization for an unlocking mandate, and would have profound economic consequences, thus raising a ‘major question’ that would require clear statutory authority from Congress,” T-Mobile vice president of government affairs Clint Odom told Democratic commissioner Geoffrey Starks last week.
The high court laid out a more expansive version of the rule in a 2022 decision, which requires explicit Congressional permission for agencies to decide issues of “vast political and economic significance,” – it’s one of a string of rulings that chip away at federal agency power. The decisions haven’t stopped the FCC’s Democratic majority from enacting rules over the objections of the telecom industry, but ISPs have had some success taking up the new avenues of attack in court.
The FCC unanimously voted in July to propose new rules that would require mobile providers to unlock phones within 60 days of activation, allowing the devices to be transferred to another provider if customers choose.
T-Mobile and AT&T strongly opposed the idea in written comments earlier this month, arguing the move’s “profound economic consequences” would trigger the major questions rule and prevent the companies from offering financing deals for low-income customers. T-Mobile generally locks phones until they’re paid off but committed to unlocking Mint Mobile phones after 60 days as a merger condition. The deal closed in May.
Consumer group Public Knowledge, which has been concerned about the issue for years, told the agency unlocking requirements would benefit low-income consumers by making it easier to switch providers and bolster the secondary smartphone market.
Verizon, already required to unlock phones after 60 days as a spectrum purchase condition, was fine with the plan. Reply comments in the proceeding are due Sept. 23.
