If you’re planning on unlocking your TELUS device, you might want to do that sooner, rather than later. The company has confirmed its unlock fee will jump from $35 to $50 as of July 7, matching Rogers and Bell.
The company’s explanation for the change, according to a statement sent to MobileSyrup, was “because the cost to provide this service is higher than we originally anticipated.” TELUS also said “We apologize for the inconvenience.”
The move to increase the unlock fee comes as three-year contracts were eliminated in Canada last month by the CRTC Wireless Code. This means contract free customers would most likely move to unlock devices and seek another carrier. This price increase means TELUS gets more revenue that matches Rogers and Bell.
Want to see more of our stories on Google?
P.S. Want to keep this site truly independent? Support us by buying us a beer, treating us to a coffee, or shopping through Amazon here. Links in this post are affiliate links, so we earn a tiny commission at no charge to you. Thanks for supporting independent Canadian media!
I think they should unlock all phones automatically after the contract expires. The cost could be a few pennies a month more but less than $50 each due to the volume.
Locking phones to networks simply should not be permitted. Period.
If a company chooses to subsidize a device by way of a loan, then they have a legal contract with you to support their repayment. They also run credit checks. They should be subject to the same systems and rules as any financing company.
Locking phones in the first place is just anti-competitive and anti-consumer.
I’m okay with them locking the phones if they didn’t charge to unlock them.
It’s simple, they want you to rack up roaming fees when you travel abroad, by misleading you into thinking the phone “can only use the Telus sim and nothing else”. The one and only financial benefit a carrier gains from SIM locks (apart from the inflated cost of unlocking) is when the customer roams abroad. Unlocking a phone while on a contract doesn’t magically make the contract go away – you still have to pay for the service and the device balance, and if you try to run, a collections agency will be sure to take notice.
Oh well, at least for non-Apple devices, getting unlock codes online is cheap – just unlocked my dad’s S6 Edge for only $17 CAD. A small price to pay for the fortune you save by being able to use foreign prepaid sims when traveling outside Canada.
Locking of phones should be banned. As was stated, you’re either paying off a loan or you actually bought the phone outright — but must still unlock it if it was purchased through a carrier. The latter is completely insane, but so is the former. If I buy a TV with credit, nothing prevents me from selling it to someone else to use on the provider of their choice. The phone companies are simply providing a means for eventual ownership and it should be treated like any other type of financing.
Every time I go to iphoneincanada for the last few days, the websit jumps me into the AppStore for fucking Candy Crush, and it’s really pissing me off. Shove candy crash up your ass. It’s really motivating me from stop reading this site.
We apologize for that, we’re looking into it as it’s a third party ad network causing this.
Is there a way to just subscribe to the articles on Cell carriers & not the Iphone daily news?
Cuz, you know, why be competitive?
It’s so strange that the big 3 always have the same pricing. This was one of the items that was priced differently. Now they are all just price clones.
Woah – I’m happy that I managed to unlock before the price went up.. But I’m really disappointed in Telus here.
Here is where its advantageous if you are able to stick with one carrier for some time. Just speak with the retentions department and ask them to waive the fee, I’ve done it, and will do it again. And yes, with Telus.
What if you need to travel oversea and want to use your phone? Don’t tell me that you are using Telus’ crazy roaming rate to make calls and use data. LOL.
How about this – you can raise roaming prices to $1000 per MB for all I care, if you stop locking phones whether subsidized or not! In many parts of Europe and Asia, locking isn’t practiced even for carrier-subsidized phones, and in some cases it’s actually banned.