The Senate Judiciary Committee voted unanimously in favor of a bill that would let cellphone users "unlock" their devices and switch to a different carrier.
The bill was an amended version of the Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act, and was sent to the senate for a vote after being approved, according to PCWorld. Congress was asked by consumer groups and advocates to pass a bill that would let people unlock their mobile devices, after the Library of Congress took away legal protections for mobile phone unlocking in January 2013. Cellphone unlocking was previously made an exception by the library to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
"Consumers should be able to use their existing cellphones when they move their service to a new wireless provider," said Patrick Leahy, committee chairman and Vermont Democrat. "I hope the full Senate can soon take up this important legislation that supports consumer rights."
The decision received praise from CTIA -The Wireless Association, a trade group of carriers who supported the bill, The Hill reported. Members of the group include Verizon, AT&T and Sprint.
"We appreciate the Judiciary Committee's effort to strike an appropriate balance by authorizing unlocking without imposing obligations to carriers," said Jot Carpenter, vice president of government affairs.
A similar bill was passed in February by the House of Representatives, but some advocates stopped supporting it because of changes they believes made the bill weaker, PC Magazine reported.
The new bill instructs the Library of Congress to determine whether tablets and other wireless devices should also be unlocked.
The legislation not only lets consumers unlock their phones themselves, but they can now also authorize someone else to unlock their devices for them, Yahoo! News reported.
"Enabling consumers to unlock mobile devices will improve competition in the wireless marketing by making it easier to switch from one carrier to another," said Laura Moy, staff attorney at consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge.
