By Shailesh Shrivastava email: s.shrivastava@mobilenapps.com | Mar 09, 2013 07:30 AM EST
When the decision of banning mobile phone unlocking by the U.S. Copyright Office was announced, it sent shock waves across the United State. Many consumer advocacy groups also started planning how to push the White House to withdraw the ban.
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However, the users of AT&T services will not have to worry about the recently announced ban as the company itself has come out to protect their interest.
AT&T announced that it will unlock the phones for its customers.
The cellular service provider says that it will unlock any device if its account was active for at least sixty days. The account should also not have any pending bills and the terms of the agreement should be respected.
"As we make clear on our website, if we have the unlock code or can reasonably get it from the manufacturer, AT&T currently will unlock a device for any customer whose account has been active for at least sixty days; whose account is in good standing and has no unpaid balance; and who has fulfilled his or her service agreement commitment. If the conditions are met we will unlock up to five devices per account per year. We will not unlock devices that have been reported lost or stolen," AT&T Vice President of Federal Regulatory, Joan Marsh, states in a blog post.
Although the declaration comes as a positive move from the service provider, AT&T users reminds the company about the previous incidences when it denied them their right of getting devices unlocked.
"That's the first time I've ever heard of this policy. You guys refused to unlock my Captivate for 13 months, and you refused it for my Galaxy S III even now, saying I must wait 18 months. When I bought my iPhone 5 at full retail, it took me three weeks to get you guys to do it, because you required faxing at specific moments, and all sorts of weird stuff. You guys refused to unlock my iPhone 4 until after my contract term expired, and even then, it took four tries to get someone who actually didn't tell me that you can't unlock it. I don't know what's going on there, but it's obvious you aren't following that policy you describe," an AT&T user posted on the same blog.
"If this is AT&T's official policy, it sure hasn't been communicated to anybody who works in customer service. When I tried to get my iPhone 4 unlocked after my contract was over, I was told repeatedly by AT&T in the store and on the phone to just jailbreak it. Multiple representatives told me that AT&T would not unlock my device, even though my contract was over," another user posted.
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