What the new rules on unlocked phones mean to your handset

The decision by the telecoms regulator Ofcom to outlaw from next December the sale of phones locked to a single network might bring forth the most significant change in the mobile landscape since the advent of pay-as-you-go tariffs back in the Nineties.
Phones locked to a single network will be outlawed next year. Image: UnsplashPhones locked to a single network will be outlawed next year. Image: Unsplash
Phones locked to a single network will be outlawed next year. Image: Unsplash

As long as there have been cellphones – smart ones, dumb ones and a few the size of house bricks – there have been invisible barriers that prevent you using them on any network except the one that sold it to you.

This made sense at first; there were only two networks and the phones themselves were so expensive that their upfront cost often had to be subsidised, to be recouped in rental and call charges in the months ahead.

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But today, the practice is as much an anachronism as renting your video recorder, or having an Ascot heater over the bath. Britain has four physical networks now and around 20 “virtual operators” which piggyback on their signals. Giffgaff, which uses O2’s network, and Voxi, which runs off Vodafone, are among the best-known examples.

And of course the handsets are no longer available exclusively from networks but from every electronics retailer in the country and thousands more online. So buying a phone direct from Vodafone and denying yourself the opportunity to change to a cheaper network in the future makes no sense.

Ofcom has finally agreed, and told BT, Tesco Mobile and others to follow the example of their rivals in supplying only phones which will accept a Sim card from another network.

The ending of the practice will also kill off the market in “unlock codes” which remove the barriers put there by the suppliers. These cost from £1 to around £20, depending on the make and network, and consist of a series of numerals and hashes which are entered on the keypad. Ebay in particular is overrun with dealers offering such services. They do work but they are fiddly and sometimes off-putting.

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What the new rules mean in practice is that there will be no barrier to anyone swapping networks and tariffs freely, without changing either number or handset, subject only to the terms of their contracts.

In fact, the practice of buying a new Sim card at the same time as a handset is itself out of date, since the lifespan of one has nothing to do with the other. A phone will typically last between two and five years, depending on how you use it and how up-to-date you want to be, whereas a Sim card can be changed every few months if you see a better deal somewhere else.

All the networks and virtual operators offer Sim-only deals, and all the most competitive come with unlimited monthly calls and texts. The difference is in the your mobile data allowance, which is the bandwidth you consume when you connect to the internet outside of a wi-fi. The cheapest tariffs are £5 a month for one gigabyte, with no minimum term, or £6 for 4GB with a year’s commitment. Smarty, which uses the Three network, offers unlimited data for £18 a month, with no ties.

Most of the newer mobile manufacturers have recognised the existence of deals like this by selling their phones direct, with Sim cards not included. You simply pop in your old one or shop around for another. Nevertheless, Vodafone, Tesco and EE appeared somewhat grudging in their acceptance of the new rules, promising to comply with Ofcom when the time came but giving no undertaking to do so earlier.

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That being the case, if you’re planning to upgrade your phone in the next 12 months, make sure it is supplied Sim free. If the shop won’t do that, there will be another one next door that will.

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