Telus is asking the CRTC to immediately approve a temporary 60-day lock on newly financed smartphones, arguing that the current ban on locked devices has handed organized crime an easy payday at the expense of retail staff and customers.
The carrier laid out its case in a reply filed August 4, describing a crisis of violent store robberies, subscription fraud and identity theft that it says existing security measures cannot keep up with. Telus told the Commission its own retail and digital defences “remain insufficient because the bad actors constantly adapt and find workarounds.”
Every other major carrier lined up behind it, says Telus. Rival Bell, which brought in its own 60-day lock in 2025 and caught a CRTC non-compliance direction for it that November, described a high number of robberies at its stores involving “the use of force, threats or intimidation directed at Bell employees,” often with firearms. Five months in, Bell says the practice “had already demonstrably reduced robbery and fraud,” worth tens of millions in savings and a big drop in account takeover attempts.
Rogers and Videotron reported millions in losses from theft and what Rogers called “significant levels of fraudulent activity.” The Canadian Telecommunications Association, whose members include Bell, Cogeco, Eastlink, Rogers, SaskTel and Videotron (Telus is not a member), said industry safeguards are “not sufficient on their own to address the evolving techniques employed by fraudsters.”
Consumer groups pushed back, and a good chunk of the filing is Telus answering them, according to the filing received by iPhone in Canada. Here’s what the proposal would actually mean if you’re buying a phone.
Devices unlock automatically at 60 days, free, with nothing required from you, so long as the account isn’t flagged for fraud or the phone reported stolen. Billing disputes, arrears and payment processing hiccups won’t hold it up. Need out sooner to switch carriers, travel or pay off the balance? Early unlocking is free at any time and only involves the same identity check you’d get for any account change. Telus also says flat out it won’t require biometric verification, and that a locked phone still reaches 911 and emergency fallback networks during an outage.
Now here’s the part about timing that everyone should know about. Telus says it intends to start locking devices in October of this year, which is not conditional on the CRTC approving it first (just like what Bell is doing). The CRTC’s review of the Wireless Code, where the permanent version of this question gets decided, holds a hearing November 30 and may not produce a final answer until 2028. Telus is asking for market-wide interim approval to cover the gap.
Comments on the permanent proposal are due August 11, 2026 (tomorrow).
We previously had reached out to Telus to seek clarification on its phone locking date, which was set for the end of July. But a Telus spokesperson clarified to iPhone in Canada on Monday of its new plan to start locking phones in October of this year.
If you don’t want to deal with the locked phone process from Telus and Bell, options include buying your iPhone outright from Apple.ca, which also includes financing plans if you need it.
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It will be interesting to see whether the CRTC buys the argument from the carriers and retroactively makes this move allowed. I worry about a slippery slope for carriers to add cases when they wouldn’t unlock the device prior to that 60 day time or if they would say devices should remained locked for a longer time.
If the devices are sitting there in the store not sold they should be locked. Steal them all you want you’ll never get in them
Do anything & everything to prevent crime &.punish where it hurts for a long time. Sick to death of watching ppl.work hard while others coast eady street thru crime.
It’s the stores fault or mgmt! For not managing it properly,there are many ways of doing it. It’s a scam by the company because sales are bad and people are getting smarter in their choices of phones.
Their never on display that’s bunch of lies what they’re saying robberies
What an ignorant comment made by Bradley. The stolen phones are exported to other countries where there is no blacklisting and iPhones are either expensive or hard to get through normal channels. These thieves know how to unlock them. Believing otherwise is clearly delulu like most readers on this site judging from the upvotes .
The CRTC and CCTS are effectively toothless now. It’s all optics or in woke parlance, performative governance.
Robelus is power-tripping, and there’s seemingly nothing stopping them. Just ask anyone who has filed a recent CCTS complaint. Many cases are left unattended or granted indefinite “extensions” without the complainant even being informed.
Seems like an unnecessarily bureaucratic plan. If they say the phones can be unlocked upon request along with proper ID, then why don’t they simply unlock them ALL when a legitimate account is set up along with proper ID?
Proposals like this make me suspicious that the company is using a legitimate issue as a back door to facilitate a later change, or intends to make the process difficult for customers so that most simply don’t bother.
I have worked in industry , lots of experience, the level of attempt fraud gets so tiring,
as rep we are responsible, accountable etc so yeah it can bite the rep too not just company and lots of other headaches, such as identity theft possibly etc ,
if we had occasionally here and there someone making a bad decision that would be, I guess OK, but believe me it’s far from that…
This is a ridiculous narrative.
The necessity is clearly pointed out, and a company like Telus isn’t about to do things to upset thier customer base by contradicting themselves on a matter this serious. If it helps thwart criminal activity, there should be no conceivable reason to not support this decision. Any perceived and non existent injustices have no standing if this ends up preventing crime. Especially given their proposed time limits and easy to unlock access for clients. There is no down side.
Just because Telus says it will thwart criminal activity?
I worked in the industry for a long time, several years ago, and continue to maintain industry knowledge.
As much as I was against phones being locked, Telus’ proposal makes a lot of sense.
The thing about identity theft and fraud is that the account gets created, the line activated and the phone is handed to the fraudster. It’s only after the fact, once invoices are produced and not paid (and/or possibly the person who’s name was used receives the invoice and calls the telecom company) that the fraud/theft is discovered. The 60-day lock simply allows for these thefts/frauds to come to light.
If the phones are unlocked at the moment of activation, there’s no way to recover them and everyone, except the thief/fraudster, loses out. The losses are accounted in the millions $$ for the companies and the person who’s identity was used lives inconveniences/hassles for years.
This seems like a fair and relatively hassle-free way to deter the criminal.
I agree 100%. 60 days is nothing and will deter the criminals. Fair argument for sure!
I’ve worked in telecom for over 25 years. I don’t like the idea of devices being locked however, it can take anywhere from 60-90 days for the carriers to discover fraudulent activations and it’s usually due to non payment on the account.
I work in the industry. Hear this example, a fraudulent customer uses different out of provinces IDs using legit customers account information from other provinces. Visits multiple stores and activate lines with phones on those unaware customers. If the rep is not vigilant or experienced they may fail to identify the fraud hence the phones are in hands of scammers. By adding the locking out period, the phones stays lock when the legit customers realized that their accounts have been hacked.
Lock all phones until the customer is in the shop buying a new phone , then unlock it. I think telus is trying a shell game here.
What the heck are you saying. Lock all phones then force consumers to buy a new phone. Where do these company’s get off forcing people to buy new phones and lock out the ones they have!
What are you talking about lol. Umm… Reading is key. How are you this confused 🤣😂
That’s why I don’t buy phone from Carriers.
Your comment makes absolutely zero sense. One way or the other you’ll need to use a carrier. As it stands right now, there is no lock even if you do buy from carriers. 😳🙄
Yep, me nether, I buy from Apple, Google, Samsung direct. NEVER from my provider.
The problem. Is people are using stolen or fraudulent ID at the time of purchase before it has been reported or can be caught during a credit check. It isn’t until days/weeks later that the real owner of the ID reports identity theft that the carriers would know. Locking for 60 days removes the incentive for fraudsters to get these phones because they can’t be resold before the fraud is detected. It makes perfect sense.
How can the fruad be detected if the phone can’t be used for 60 days? Is the customer expected to pay for 2 months of service they don’t receive in order to eventually be able to use the phone?
The phone is carrier locked, it still functions fine for the owner, it just can’t be used on another carrier until it is unlocked.
Why bother when they’re going to use the same hackable identification protocols to unlock sooner? Im dealing w a hack even the bank has never heard of AND I FOUND A BREACH of the banks online and paper statements that will blow your minds when it comes out.
Again, POINTLESS!!!
You sound like you need to increase your meds.
Good point!
Hello
who gives a sh iit. cost of doing business. you owe humanity bitches! and not everything has to be about your fucking boat and ceo’s resort. you owe us beyond explaintion for raping the resources from our children and striping our agency to have our values as a choice! not the fked greed insanity you believe is normal.
stupid humanity cucks. when late stage capitalism transitions to revolution from despair and inequality, LinkedIn is going to tell us who to find first.
It “automatically” unlocks after 60 days but can be unlocked if asked, huh. That sounds like an ineffective software solution that does nothing but infuriate genuine users while very mildly inconveniencing any fraudster. If a rep can unlock the phone, what’s to stop fraudsters from following the same steps? Probably a magic usb key that works with dev mode & flips a switch, “secure” until any bad actor puts any amount of effort to defeat it. Anti-consumer is what it is.
Bell said the 60-day phone locking nearly eliminated all in-store robberies. If we take them at their word, it’s hard to argue against the measure’s effectiveness, even if it’s a poor trade-off for genuine buyers.
Yes I was scammed by Koodo who said I had brought an $1800 phone and sent to a place I had never been to. No real person customer service and they have sent it to collections. I am of course fighting it.
So so you were scammed by a fraudster for an expensive phone that could have been avoided if locked. allowing the provider to notice the scam and fraud in your name to help you resolve the issue quicker…
All the industry agree. They likely know better than the CRTC due to their experience. 60 days is more than reasonable.
CRTC may want to ease up on the dictatorship attitude. Theft always costs the consumer.
Funny how this comes after the CRTC said they can’t stop people from changing carriers or switch plans anytime within their contract. This is just another loophole to hold people hostage
Do you prefer a 60-day hostage situation or being frauded under your name by someone using your identity for thousands of dollars and it not being detected because someone was too butt hurt for 60 day lock.
Must be nice to just break the law whenever you feel like it without worrying about consequence. The reason this was brought in in the first place is because phone companies were locking all our phones and to their service and then charging fees, sometimes HUGE ones, to unlock them so you could continue service with another carrier. I haven’t heard of any “violent robberies” at any phone stores….
They’re not stopping you from leaving… and not charging you extra to do so uf you decide to.
And personally if you’re provider hoping constantly, you need to chill and understand that your first bill is ALWAYS higher due to partial charges due to your activation date and billing cycle dates not being the same. You activate on X day… but day Z is your billing cycle. The days from activation to billing cycle are ALWAYS stacked on and if you don’t understand that and complain your bill isn’t what was promised with the sales rep, well sit down and understand because you’re freaking out for nothing and provider hoping for no reason thinking there’s an issue or a scam when you just need to understand basic math. So partial charges + your full next cycle is on your first bill. The second becomes a normal charge BUT WAIT some discounts MAY takes a few cycles to kick in… why? Idk… they just do. Yes this could be better but you can also chill and let some processes work and be applied before panicking and requesting to transfer your number elsewhere and thinking everything is out to get you.
If you’re setting up a contract with a new device AND NEED THE LUXURY of being allowed to leave the provider within 60days and this device lock of 60days is a big complication for you… it may be because you weren’t planning on paying the phone and you may very well be part of the gang this lock is trying to stop/slow down.
Normally people leaving within 60days are returning their device and cancelling the contract which isn’t difficult to do if you really don’t want to stay with the provider.
So the lock wouldnt be an issue in this situation either.
The lock is simply to avoid someone peacingout with the device as a preventive measure.
TLDR : WANT TO LEAVE WITHIN 60DAYS? >> RETURN LOCKED DEVICE TO PROVIDER WITHIN RETURN PERIOD OR PAY IT IN FULL AND GET DEVICE UNLOCKED TO LEAVE WITH IT.
WANT TO LEAVE WITHIN 6PDAYS AND YOU’RE COMPLAINING ABOUT THE 60DAY LOCK INITIATIVE >> SOUNDS LIKE SOMETHING A FRAUDSTER WOULD COMPLAIN ABOUT.
Telus complaining about getting ripped off is the very definition of irony.
Blacks and browns.
Yes, crazy how we never needed these measures before mass importing the third world’s miscreants
Carrier lock means you can’t even install a travel eSIM until the 60th day. It is not the solution, IMEI blacklisting is. Once the phone is in the national IMEI blacklist, it cannot be used in any carriers, except if you take it oversea.
The motive for this 60 days lock is to prevent people buying phones via price errors then immediately cancelling the plan.
Blacklisted phone cannot work in almost entire world these days
They are free to get out of the business of selling phones, they are not free to lock phones. they can physically secure them as any other property, but not via a backdoor software lock… nor are they free to treat everyone that buys a phone like a criminal because of fraudsters. Just as store cannot call the cops everytime someone makes a purchase, on the off chance that they may have stolen something. The 60 day lock is something they literally want to put on phones that are sold on the off chance it was fraudster… same crap.
The fact people buy this 60 day lockdown crap is telling, and people consider the source of claims, dont be mindless lemmings.
Every year I find myself surrounded by less humans and more humanoid, we are rapidly going from the doubly wise man Homo-sapien-sapien to Homo-ignoramous, the ignorant man.
But by all means believe whatever your capitalist overlords tell you to believe uncritically, if ignorance is bliss, than i’d still rather be miserably aware.
Some industry knowledge would help you better understand the realities of all those involved, including the victim of identity theft who has to deal with the mess that a fraudster subjected him to.
No, just because business is bad and badly managed, you all to suffer
Just remember why the rule was in place.
Canadian big telco were all using locked phone as a way to locked down customers for decades. Phone plan were expensive. You can’t even travel with a locked phone unless you paid expensive roaming fee.
Phone plan has become more affordable with unlocked phone.
What will they do once they have increased control over legit customers?
Look at recently years how Roger’s forced fido prepaid customers move to Monthly and not transferring their balance.
Speak out 711 zero out all their customers prepaid balance.
CRTC didn’t do anything for both cases.
Remember, our government (CRTC) is not on ourside. Previous chair scandal with one of the big telco is another example.
Good luck
It’s only 60 days people; get over it! The proposal makes a lot of sense.
Right as android is getting ready to lock down, gee what are the chances. Must just be a coincidence
Then why are you all selling OUR DATA to the highest bidder? CORRUPT PHONE COMPANIES ARE SELLING THE DATA THEN WONDER WHY WE HAVE FRAUD….THEY SPEAK OUT BOTH SIDES OF THEIR MOUTHS, THEY ARE CORRUPT MACKEVILLIAN FRAUDS WE ALL KNOW THE CORPORATION’S ARE FRAUDSTERS AND DONT CARE ABOUT THE CUSTOMER ..
Remind me to avoid telus
If it’s talking about NEW phones, will phones that were used before this started have the same problem, or are they exempt from it?
If they want less “bad actors” thry should stop ripping off their customers. Phone prices and bills are ridiculous in this country.
The cell phone companies just ignore the rules and try to break the,,,,,Need huge fines…Rogers just pumped up my bill by 5$ a month? They have 12.5m subscribers, thats $62.m a month….a 10 m $ fine means nothing?