White House petitions FFC

The White House has petitioned FCC to make cell phone unlocking legal. The ban on unlocking cell phones went into actions at the start of the year because the Library of Congress opted not to renew a Digital Millennium Copyright Act exemption. The White House wants the wireless carriers to unlock mobile devices upon request.

The Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration(NTIA) filed the proposal, after the Obama administration supported an Internet petition this spring. There was an online petition that got 114,322 signatures before getting the President's support in March. The people on the other side of the argument said that phones should be prevented from moving between networks because of the subsidies that wireless carriers provide consumers to get the phones. Lawrence Strickling,the assistant secretary of the NTIA, said "Americans should be able to use their mobile devices on whatever networks they choose and have their devices unlocked without hassle." Saying this we can see where Lawrence Strickling stands about his views on this petition. All in all, if this petition passes, then you can get your cell phone unlocked at whatever network carrier you want.