The Federal Communications Commission is letting Verizon lock phones to its network for longer periods, eliminating a requirement to unlock handsets 60 days after they are activated on its network.
The change will make it harder for people to switch from Verizon to other carriers.
We only have upon request unlocking in Canada too.Edit: my bad, I guess I was thinking of when the law passed you had to call in for old phones.
That’s not true at all. Phones have to be sold unlocked and have been since 2017. Any devices sold before then can be unlocked for free upon request, but that is almost 9 years ago which essentially means that all phones in active use in Canada are unlocked.
https://www.canada.ca/en/radio-television-telecommunications/news/2017/06/crtc_puts_an_endtolockedcellphonesandunlockingfees.html
Here’s a more recent ruling by the CRTC blasting Bell for violating the rule as they were locking and then auto-unlocking after 60 days, which was also found to be a violation:
https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2025/lt251128.htm
My bad, I guess I was thinking of when the law passed you had to call in for old phones.
Thank you for the info and links.