Your phone just became a year-long hostage. Verizon quietly extended its device unlock period from 60 days to 365 days for prepaid customers, leveraging a fresh FCC waiver that prioritizes corporate profits over consumer choice.
If you bought a phone on TracFone, Visible, Total Wireless, Straight Talk, or Simple Mobile after January 20, you’re locked in for twelve months of consecutive service before requesting—not automatically receiving—an unlocked device.
The New Rules Lock Down Everything
Verizon’s updated policy transforms phone ownership into a subscription service.
The company’s revised policy requires 365 days of active service before you can even request an unlock. Miss a payment and reset the clock entirely. Your device must show “ordinary usage patterns” and avoid any fraud flags—criteria Verizon alone determines.
Military personnel keep early unlock privileges, but everyone else waits a full year. This marks a dramatic reversal from the automatic 60-day unlocks that defined Verizon’s competitive advantage over AT&T and T-Mobile’s longer lock periods.
Your Freedom Just Got Expensive
Carrier switching, international travel, and phone resale all take major hits.
Planning to switch carriers for a better deal? Forget it for twelve months. Need to use a local SIM while traveling internationally? Not happening. Hoping to sell your phone for decent resale value? Locked devices fetch significantly less on secondary markets.
The policy particularly hammers prepaid users—typically cost-conscious consumers who value flexibility most. Verizon’s fraud justification cites 784,703 stolen devices in 2023, but critics note the company already has robust tools to combat actual theft without punishing legitimate customers.
The FCC Caves to Corporate Pressure
Deregulation disguised as fraud prevention signals broader consumer protection rollback.
The FCC granted Verizon’s waiver request on January 12, ending a unique policy dating to the company’s 2007 spectrum acquisition. Verizon wasted exactly eight days implementing the change, suggesting this wasn’t about careful fraud analysis—it was about matching competitors who never faced similar unlock requirements.
Under Chairman Carr’s “Delete, Delete, Delete“ deregulation agenda, expect more consumer protections to vanish behind corporate-friendly justifications.
Your best defense? Buy unlocked phones directly from manufacturers and avoid carrier financing entirely. Because in telecom’s new reality, ownership means whatever the carrier says it means.
