Verizon is Losing Tons of Customers, Begs FCC to Make It Harder for You to Unlock Your Phone

Verizon is losing customers at an incredible rate. Their expensive plans that removed all of the perks that made their previous plans worth signing up for, unsurprisingly haven’t been winning over the wireless customer base. Instead, plans from T-Mobile and AT&T are seen as more attractive, thus the reason those two carriers keep piling on … Continued Read the original post: Verizon is Losing Tons of Customers, Begs FCC to Make It Harder for You to Unlock Your Phone

May 23, 2025 - 09:50

Verizon is Losing Tons of Customers, Begs FCC to Make It Harder for You to Unlock Your Phone

Verizon is losing customers at an incredible rate. Their expensive plans that removed all of the perks that made their previous plans worth signing up for, unsurprisingly haven’t been winning over the wireless customer base. Instead, plans from T-Mobile and AT&T are seen as more attractive, thus the reason those two carriers keep piling on new customers with each passing quarter.

What should Verizon do to correct this downward spiral? Well, they do not appear to want to try and immediately offer more affordable, feature-rich, and customer-friendly plans or promos or services. Instead, they’ve decided to cozy up to the current US administration, an FCC looking to deregulate it all, and that underperforming government efficiency group run by the South African who also acts as the CEO of an electric car company on the side.

When Verizon was given the go-ahead in 2008 to purchase 700MHz spectrum (and extended it when they purchased Tracfone in 2021), they had to compromise some by agreeing to open access rules, one of which included committing to unlocking customer phones within 60 days. This is an automatic unlock that happens whether you have paid off your phone or not. It’s not even that reasonable, because it won’t happen sooner than that, but at least it happens within 60 days.

Verizon, instead of coming up with attractive wireless plans, has decided that now would be the best time to get this rule removed – and they are probably correct in assuming that now is the best time for them to request this, you know, with all the deregulation happening.

In a filing with the FCC (here) this week, Verizon has requested a waiver on their unlocking commitment, because unlocking phones within 60 days has “resulted in unintended consequences that harm consumers, competition, and Verizon, while propping up international criminal organizations that profit from fraud, including device trafficking of subsidized devices from the United States.” Bro, what?

Verizon really just doesn’t think it’s fair any longer that they have to commit to this 60-day unlocking rule when others don’t, so they blamed Google on some level, as well as net neutrality advocates, because this commitment “harms American consumers and competition.” They also pointed out that eliminating this rule is “the perfect example of the type of rule that the Commission should eliminate as a part of ” Elon Musk’s DOGE and the FCC’s “Delete, Delete, Delete” public notice (here), where they want public input in identifying rules that are putting unnecessary regulatory burdens on American firms.

But how would getting rid of this policy benefit Verizon customers, since Verizon argues that it is hurting them? This 60-day unlocking policy is apparently not allowing Verizon to “continue offering subsidies and other mechanisms to make phones more affordable, lower upfront costs, and enable customers to obtain the latest and most innovative devices.” Nope, this policy needs to be removed in order for those things to happen. Just this. Just a 60-day unlocking policy.

Verizon is so serious about this policy holding them back, that they even said that it “hampers [their] ability to compete more aggressively, including through handset subsidies.” I mean…lol. Sure.

So what’s their proposal? They don’t exactly say, but they do reference some mysterious 6-month unlocking policy as the industry standard. AT&T has a prepaid rule of 6 months, but most carriers just want you to pay off your phone completely and then they’ll unlock it. They are really just asking for the FCC to provide them a waiver on the rule until it can come up with an industry-wide approach. Should that happen, I’d imagine they could implement just about whatever kind of policy they want.

Verizon admits in this waiver request that their data shows a “sharp increase in customers purchasing devices and then rapidly leaving within the first few months of service.” Again, do we really think that’s the unlock policy or the expensive, not-as-feature-rich plans that often see price increases? You tell me.

// Light Reading

Read the original post: Verizon is Losing Tons of Customers, Begs FCC to Make It Harder for You to Unlock Your Phone