Ben Howlett – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Howlett on 2016-01-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will discuss with mobile telephone companies steps to reduce and standardise the time between a provider unlocking a phone and the owner of that phone being able to use it with another provider.

Mr Edward Vaizey

The Government wants to reduce the cost and hassle of switching mobile providers for consumers. We expect industry to start automatically unlocking customers’ handsets at the end of their contracts, and will consult this year on ending the practice of handset locking for customers outside their initial contract period.