Chile Bans Carrier Locked Phones. Subtel Tweets The Announcement

In a brave move, the Government of Chile has banned the sale of carrier locked phones in the country. The telecom regulatory board of the country, Subtel, #-Link-Snipped-# the announcement via their official account. The report suggests that all cellphones sold from January 2, 2012 must be unlocked so that they can be used with any carrier.

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Even the devices which were purchased before January 2nd can be unlocked without any fees through an online site which asks for IMEI number and details about the devices to get through the process of unlocking. This move puts technology in the forefront which also allows general public enjoy their favourite smartphone that generally comes locked to carriers.

This plan has been put forward by the telecom board in order promote mobile number portability between carriers which starts from 16th January. Back in 1997, Singapore was the first country to challenge carriers and ban carrier locked phones and other plans which kept customers under contract, while recently in 2010, Israel also joined the list of countries banning the sale of locked phones.

The lack of proper laws in regulating these matters in almost all countries are the prime reason of jailbreaking and rooting of phones gaining popularity. If phone manufacturers want to put a check on this, they might need to rethink their strategy of locking their phones to a particular carrier. There hasn't been any such law in UK, US and India but the carriers unlock the phones only at the end of the contract period. So it is worth a wait to see if other Governments also adopt such a move to help you enjoy your favourite smartphone without any boundaries.

Source: All cellphones in Chile must be sold unlocked from January 2nd - The Verge