14 DAY TRIAL // On Tuesday, the White House filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission, urging it to require for wireless carriers to unlock smartphones and other mobile devices on their networks, The Washington Post reports.
Back in January, the unlocking of smartphones for use on other wireless networks was deemed illegal by the Library of Congress, which spurred a wide series of protests from end users.
The White House, however, said a few times before that it was backing such complains, and noted in the aforementioned petition that users should be allowed to unlock devices in order to bring them on the network of their choosing.
Apparently, the FCC also supports the idea of unlocking devices, though the Library of Congress decision hasn’t been modified as of now.
According to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, allowing users to unlock their devices would increase competition. Others, however, believe that the move would enable users to move copyrighted software between networks.