Phone unlocking requirement has increased theft: Bell, Rogers

Rules that force providers to unlock smartphones have led to an increased level of crime targeting the supply chain and retail elements of their businesses, BCE Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc. told the CRTC. “We have seen an increase in illegal and fraudulent activity tied to the acquisition of unlocked devices” since the Wireless Code was updated in December 2017 to require carriers unlock devices, Bell said in a filing to the CRTC published Tuesday. “There have been multiple instances of armed robberies at our stores targeting unlocked, new devices. Unlocked, new devices untied to a service contract are easily sellable in both the grey and black markets across North America and internationally.” Bell stated in its filing that in response, it will begin to ship phones locked, and will only unlock at the point of sale. Rogers also pointed to a “100%” increase in “the volume of missing devices in the months since the new unlocking rules came into effect over the same six month period in 2017.” The company also attributed that trend to unlocked devices being more of a target for “fraudsters and thieves.” This filings were part of proceedings that started after the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) collected complaints and filed an application that alleged carriers were not unlocking equipment of former customers. That led the regulator to request information about carrier unlocking policies earlier in July. The filings show that every Canadian mobile carrier now either offers device unlocking a or never sold unlocked devices in the first place. Telecoms told the CRTC that some reasons why they would refuse to unlock phones include whether the phone was originally sold by the company, the payment status of the customer’s account and if the phone was stolen or found on a device “blacklist.” However, all the carriers told the CRTC that former customers in good standing could get their equipment unlocked. Bell was the only one of the Big Three to publicly release the number of devices it has unlocked since Dec. 2017, saying it did so for 257,840 phones across its main and flanker brands. Shaw Communication Inc.’s Freedom unlocked 34,001 phones over that time, and Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron unlocked 96,342. Bell said it would only refuse unlocking in two cases, if it was dealing with a stolen device or if a customer has an outstanding account balance. Similarly, Rogers said it requests repayment on any owed amount on the account before unlocking current and former customers’ phones. The reasons why it would decline an unlock request from a former customer are if their account was closed due to non-payment or fraud. It does not have a maximum amount of device unlocks for current and previous customer, but will only unlock five devices at a time from non-customers to reduce the impact on call centre wait times, Rogers said. “These callers request unlocks for multiple devices at one time, in many cases several dozen handsets. We conclude that such requests likely originate with device resellers who purchased or acquired refurbished or otherwise used handsets. These calls can be lengthy and cause unintentionally long wait times for Rogers customers,” it said in it reply to the CRTC. Telus Corp. offers unlocking services to current and former customers, as well as businesses and individuals who were not previous customers, with some exceptions. Like its incumbent peers, Telus does not unlock stolen or blacklisted phones, according to its response to the CRTC. It also added that it can’t unlock CDMA phones. Videotron and Freedom Mobile both offer unlocking services to current and former customers but only Videotron would unlock phones for people who had not previously been clients. While it does unlock all current customers’ phones, Bragg Communications Inc.’s Eastlink takes a harder stance, requiring that former customers have the device linked to their account. The company doesn’t unlock devices for people or businesses who have not been customers of the service. The East Coast provider cited protecting customers who might not have consented to the unlock as the rationale. “If we are asked to provide an unlock code for an Eastlink device that is not attached to the customer’s account and/or where the person requesting the code has never been an Eastlink customer, we simply recommend that the person follow-up with whoever sold them the device and ask them to call us directly,” read Eastlink’s reply. — With reporting by Bryson Masse at bmasse@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Phone unlocking requirement has increased theft: Bell, Rogers

News | July 31, 2018

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Phone unlocking requirement has increased theft: Bell, Rogers

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