Unlocking a phone you own is lawful in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. What differs is who has to do it and when: in the US the carrier’s own policy sets the wait, in the UK providers may not sell a locked phone at all, and in Canada every phone has had to be sold unlocked since 2017, with free unlocks on request for the rest. Here is each regulator’s position in our own words, with links to the pages themselves. Nothing here is an endorsement by any of them.
The three countries at a glance
| United States | United Kingdom | Canada | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Can you unlock your own phone? | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Can a carrier sell it locked? | Yes | No, since December 17, 2021 | No, since December 1, 2017 |
| Must the carrier unlock it? | Under the industry code: postpaid once paid off, prepaid within a year | Older phones: the provider that locked it unlocks it | Yes, free, on request |
| Regulator | FCC (consumer guide; a 60-day rule proposed in 2024, no final rule yet) | Ofcom (General Conditions) | CRTC (Wireless Code, section F.1) |
United States: legal, timing set by the carrier
The FCC’s consumer guide treats unlocking as something you ask your carrier for once you are eligible: a lock is software that keeps a phone built for one network from being activated on another, a carrier may refuse while money is owed or a contract is unfinished, and once eligible it may unlock automatically, send instructions or do it in a store. The nationwide carriers committed in 2014 to the CTIA Consumer Code: post the policy, unlock postpaid phones on request once paid off, prepaid within a year, answer within two business days, and unlock for deployed military. In July 2024 the FCC proposed a uniform 60-day rule; as of October 5, 2026 no final rule has been adopted, and in 2026 the FCC waived the one 60-day duty that existed, for Verizon. Your own carrier’s wait is in is my phone eligible; the Verizon change is in Verizon’s 2026 rules.
United Kingdom: providers can’t sell locked phones
Ofcom’s rule came into force on December 17, 2021: mobile companies are banned from selling customers locked handsets, so people can move networks with the phone they have. Ofcom’s research behind the decision found that more than a third of people who decided against switching were put off by having to unlock a handset, and nearly half of those who tried had trouble — long waits, codes that didn’t work, lost service. Ofcom’s switching page today simply says providers cannot sell locked phones, so you should be able to keep your phone when you move; you text PAC to 65075 to keep your number. The catch is older phones: a second-hand phone first sold by a UK provider before December 2021 may still be locked, and the provider that locked it is the one that unlocks it.
Canada: unlocked by law since 2017
The CRTC’s Wireless Code says any phone a provider gives a customer must be provided unlocked, and a phone that is or becomes locked to a provider’s network must be unlocked by that provider, or the customer given the means to do it, on request and at no charge. The rule has applied since December 1, 2017, to postpaid and prepaid service alike. It is being tested right now: Bell and Virgin Plus told the CRTC in April 2025 that they would sell phones locked for 60 days to fight theft and fraud at the point of sale, and on August 14, 2026 the CRTC opened a show-cause proceeding against Bell while temporarily allowing every provider a lock of no more than two business days after purchase — with free unlocking on request still required. The Canada guide in this series has the details.
What “legal” does not cover
- A phone reported lost or stolen, or bought with fraud, stays locked in all three countries. See what a blacklisted IMEI means.
- Being allowed to unlock a phone does not make the carrier do it faster: in the US the policy’s wait still applies.
- Unlocking is not the same as the phone working on another network — bands and features are the phone’s, not the lock’s.
- Account locks (Apple’s Activation Lock, Google’s FRP) are a different thing entirely: iCloud and FRP locks vs carrier locks.
When the carrier’s wait is the problem
In the US, a used phone tied to someone else’s account or a prepaid phone months short of its year can’t be unlocked by its carrier for you. Our carrier pages list the unlocks we offer for each network, with live prices and delivery estimates. Run an IMEI check on any phone bought secondhand first.
