Verizon Convinces FCC to Kill Its 60-Day Phone Unlocking Rule and That’s Bad

Verizon no longer has to automatically unlock your phone after 60 days and their new unlock policy could be anything, thanks to a new waiver by the FCC.

During the height of its struggles to keep postpaid customers around in May of 2025, Verizon asked the FCC to get rid of a requirement that forced them to unlock phones after being on their network for 60 days. This 60-day unlock, which was the shortest in the industry, had become some sort of a burden on Verizon because, well, mostly because they just didn’t think it was fair that no one else had this same requirement.

Last year, they sent a filing to the current FCC, which is as anti-consumer and anti-free speech as it gets, complaining that they couldn’t compete with proper subsidies on phones, that eliminating this rule was the perfect example of a rule that should be eliminated by all of the deregulation and government cutting going on, and that this rule was “propping up international criminal organizations that profit from fraud, including device trafficking of subsidized devices from the United States.”

The rule they are talking about is the one that Verizon had to commit to back in 2008 after buying a bunch of spectrum. The rule was later extended in 2021 after they bought Tracfone. The rule from the FCC forced Verizon to automatically unlock devices after 60 days, whether or not a customer had paid off their phone or fulfilled contract requirements.

This week, the FCC ruled on their filing (here) and has given a waiver to Verizon, releasing them from the 60-day unlock policy they were previously enforcing.

In the note from the FCC, they essentially admitted that they were waiving Verizon from this requirement because they want Verizon to have the same unlocking freedom as the other carriers in the US. They then attempted to add to the story with talk typically reserved for online conspiracy theorists and extremists who don’t believe in reality. Just read this quote from FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and tell me if any of this sounds believable:

“Sophisticated criminal networks have exploited the FCC’s handset unlocking policies to carry out criminal acts—including transnational handset trafficking schemes and facilitating broader criminal enterprises like drug running and human smuggling. By waiving a regulation that incentivized bad actors to target one particular carrier’s handsets for theft, we now have a uniform industry standard that can help stem the flow of handsets into the black market.”

Bro, get off Twitter.

Anyways, the thing you need to know is that the FCC is cool with Verizon now being under the CTIA Consumer Code for Wireless Service and deciding on an unlock policy from that. Unfortunately for you, the consumer, the CTIA’s unlocking policy sucks. Specifically, their postpaid unlocking policy just gives the power to the carrier to decide whatever the hell they want.

Here’s what it states on postpaid (which is the type of plan you’d pay for at Verizon and receive a device payment plan or discount on a phone):

Postpaid Unlocking Policy. Carriers upon request will unlock mobile wireless devices or provide the necessary information to unlock devices for their customers and former customers in good standing and individual owners of eligible devices after the fulfillment of the applicable postpaid service contract, device financing plan, or payment of an applicable early termination fee.

In short, that policy simply states that carriers will unlock as long as you are “in good standing” and that your contract is fulfilled. In other words, Verizon could easily go from a 60-day unlock policy to a 3-year policy, since they now lock customers in on 3-year device payment plan contracts.

Oh, the FCC also said this is all to “benefit consumers.” Someone tell me how it does because they didn’t.