Verizon's Carrier Lock Will Last Longer Following FCC Win That Abolishes 60-day Period

Verizon will soon enforce longer carrier locks on smartphones it sells.

The previous policy required Verizon to remove the carrier lock on the smartphones it sold 60 days after purchase. However, Verizon has filed a petition against this with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which it won.

Verizon's Carrier Lock Will Last Longer Now

ArsTechnica reported that the FCC has now granted Verizon's petition to lift the requirement to unlock a smartphone's carrier lock 60 days after a customer's purchase.

With this, Verizon is now required to follow the CTIA group's voluntary unlocking policies, which will have prepaid mobile handsets unlocked from their carrier restrictions a year after purchase. On the other hand, postpaid devices that are bound by their contracts will only need to be unlocked once the timeline of the set contract period elapses.

The FCC said that the longer lock-in period can also help reduce bad actors plotting to steal those devices for "fraud and other illegal acts."

Verizon FCC Win: Longer Lock-in Periods

It is important to note that Verizon is still on a waiver that was granted by the FCC, and with this, the company needs to create a policy for both prepaid and postpaid smartphone lock-in periods.

For now, it is made to adopt the CTIA's policies on carrier lock periods for all smartphone purchases since this waiver took effect.

However, this will no longer be needed once Verizon creates its own.