0330 123 4609
Menu
Ever tried to unlock your phone, only to discover that the process was trickier than expected? Don't worry, you're not the only one. The good news is as of December 2021, all of the UK’s mobile networks will be banned from selling locked handsets. A locked phone is a device which will only work from the provider that you initially bought it from.
Photo by Harpal Singh on Unsplash
Ofcom, which is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the telecommunications industry, argue that the process of unlocking smartphones is too complicated for consumers, which often discourages them from switching providers once they reach the end of their contracts. The argument that Ofcom are making is therefore that there isn't fair competition among providers, as consumers are deterred from shopping elsewhere if they want to change.
According to a study by Ofcom, around half of people who try to unlock their smartphones run into difficulties. These can include waiting a long time to get the activation code and the code itself not working. Furthermore, many phone users do not realise that their devices are locked at all, which leads to a surprising loss of service when they attempt to switch.
Other new measures that providers will have to comply with include a stronger right for customers to leave if changes are made to their deals that they were not made aware of when they first signed, which will come into force in June 2022, and a requirement that customers are shown a clear summary of the contract that they are signing up to, which has to be adhered to by all providers by June 2022.
We look forward to seeing these changes come into force, as we always want smartphone consumers to find the best deal.
If you want some help with unlocking your phone in the meantime, check out our guide. To get the process started, you can refer to the online forms given by each provider or by going to MyO2 in the case of O2, or calling the Virgin Media number.
Whether your smartphone is unlocked or not, you can sell it using Compare and Recycle.
Cover image by Chad Madden on Unsplash
Unfortunately, the digital age has made cheating harder to spot, but it doesn’t make it any less real. Over the past decade, the concept of what constitutes “cheating” has expanded to include a variety of behaviours that might not have been considered cheating a generation ago.
The Galaxy S25 marks the latest addition to Samsung’s flagship portfolio. In the lead-up to the launch of the S25, we analysed on-site trade-in prices of the past four generations of Galaxy S series (S21, S22, S23, and S24) to gain insights into how well these models retained their value during their first year on the market and what the first 12 months for the S25 might look like.
As each year progresses, it seems as though AI and GenAI is being woven into our society creating more and more innovative tech advancements. From generated text, images, videos and even technology that works to detect cancer, you can expect AI to be able to create all types of content and task completion which is only to be improved on in 2025.
