Unlocking your phone through a carrier officially gets easier

If you're looking for a carrier to unlock your phone, you can officially expect more options: February 11th is the deadline for carriers to adopt unlocking standards that the CTIA announced in December 2013. This industry-wide agreement mandates that carriers post clear unlocking policies online, offer to unlock prepaid phones within a year of purchase and postpaid ones after a user's contract is up, respond to any requests within two business days, and unlock phones for deployed military personnel. All the major carriers have had unlocking policies for some time, but this standardizes them and makes clear that unlocking should be a right, not a privilege.