White House: It's time to legalize cell phone unlocking

In February, a petition calling for an end to the ban on unlocking cell phones was introduced. In a short amount of time, the petition received the requisite 100,000 signatures needed to elicit a possible White House responsible.

Today, the administration did indeed respond to the petition and it appears the White House is in favor of letting consumers unlock their phones. In a reply titled "It's Time to Legalize Cell Phone Unlocking", the White House shows its support for the petition. "The White House agrees with the 114,000+ of you who believe that consumers should be able to unlock their cell phones without risking criminal or other penalties." the White House stated. The response later continues, "The Obama Administration would support a range of approaches to addressing this issue, including narrow legislative fixes in the telecommunications space that make it clear: neither criminal law nor technological locks should prevent consumers from switching carriers when they are no longer bound by a service agreement or other obligation.