By Bradley Bennett [1]
BELLEVILLE – This Friday all cellphones bought in Canada will no longer be locked to the carrier that sold them.
Before Friday, if you buy a phone from, for example, Rogers and want to switch to Bell, you would have to pay an unlocking fee that frees you from your initial carrier. That all changes on Friday, when new rules from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission [2] come into effect.
It’s part of the CRTC’s ongoing efforts to make rules governing buying and using Internet and cellphones more transparent and to promote competition in the marketplace.
If you already own a phone you can call your carrier after Friday and have it unlocked free.