Order Granting Verizon Partial Waiver for Upper 700 MHz C Block

The Federal Communications Commission granted Verizon a partial waiver of FCC rules which prohibits Upper 700 MHz C Block licensees from “locking” handsets that are used in the band. In order to allow Verizon to better combat identity theft and other forms of handset-related fraud, this waiver will permit Verizon to lock a customer’s handset for 60 days from the date it becomes active on Verizon’s network. The FCC denied, however, Verizon’s request that the commission issue a Declaratory Ruling finding the handset unlocking rule already permits such temporary locking.

If you’re wondering why Verizon needs this permission in the first place, it dates back to the FCC’s 2008 auction of 700MHz spectrum, which saw Verizon come away with the prized “C block.” The rules of that transaction required Verizon to unlock the phones it sold for use on any carrier that devices could support. Ever since, Verizon has adhered to the policy and, as a result, has been less restrictive than AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint. Those other carriers each lock new phones to their networks either for a set length of time, until a device has been fully paid off, or both.