After an extensive look at the procedures and costs of unlocking your smartphone in Canada, we asked MobileSyrup readers how they felt about the current unlocking landscape.
We polled just over 2,600 MobileSyrup readers to see how they felt about unlocking fees and the findings have been interesting.
Of the 2,656 respondents, 58 (or 2.18 percent) said they feel the fee is there for a reason. When asked if the cost should be removed only after you’ve completed your contractual obligations, 900 (or 33.89 percent) of readers said they agree with that statement. The question that had the highest number of respondents was if the devices should be unlocked for free, and of the 2,656 readers, 1,698 people (or 63.93 percent) say that phones should be unlocked for free.
It’s clear Canadians feel that their smartphones should be unlocked for free, but the carriers don’t agree. MobileSyrup asked Canadian carriers why the fee is there, in which the common response was that carriers have associated when unlocking devices and that the fee is to cover those incurred costs.
The CRTC is currently evaluating unlocking fees and the process as a whole. It’s currently unclear whether unlocking fees will actually stand the test of time.
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