Two Business Days, Not Sixty

Since December 2017, a phone sold with a Canadian wireless plan has had to come unlocked, so you can take it to another provider or put a local SIM in it abroad. In April 2025, Bell and Virgin Plus started selling phones that stayed locked for 60 days. The CRTC told Bell to stop. Bell asked it to reconsider, and to put that direction on hold. On August 14 the Commission paused the rule for every provider, on much shorter terms: two business days, not sixty. It also opened a case asking Bell to explain itself. The public can comment until September 24.

The Rule

The Wireless Code says two things about locked phones. A device a provider gives you for wireless service “must be provided unlocked.” And if a device “is, or becomes, locked” to a provider's network, the provider must unlock it, or give you the means to unlock it, “upon request, at no charge.” When the Commission wrote the rule, it said phones must be unlocked at or before the time of sale.

The reason, in the Commission's own words: unlocked devices “offer consumers more choice and convenience, provide options to consumers travelling abroad, and eliminate a significant barrier to switching plans.” A phone that only works on one network is a reason not to leave it.

What Bell Did

On April 22, 2025, Bell and its Virgin Plus brand told CRTC staff they would start selling phones locked for 60 days after purchase. They started the next day. Bell's reasons were fraud and crime at its stores, chiefly robberies. Its position on the rule was that its phones are in fact provided unlocked, because a legitimate customer ends up with an unlocked phone 60 days after activation without doing anything and at no cost. As the CRTC summarized Bell's argument, “Commission protections do not apply to ‘bad actors.’”

The Commission disagreed. In a letter on November 28, 2025, it found the practice did not comply with the Wireless Code, said Bell had not shown the practice was effective or that it had tried alternatives that would comply, and directed Bell to “immediately cease selling locked cellphones.” It also directed Bell to unlock, free of charge, any phone still locked because of the practice, and to tell the customers affected.

In December 2025 Bell asked the Commission to withdraw or reconsider that letter and, in the meantime, to put it on hold. It also filed confidential evidence that, it said, showed locking had reduced robberies and fraud. The Commission says the practice appears to have continued without interruption since April 23, 2025.

Bell was not the only one. In December 2025, CRTC staff wrote to TELUS about what the letter called its “apparent non-compliance,” saying TELUS had been selling phones “locked for up to 60 days after purchase.” In May 2026, TELUS applied for permission for all wireless providers to lock new subsidized or financed phones for 60 days.

The Pause, and Its Conditions

On August 14, 2026, the Commission paused the rule that phones must be sold unlocked. It did not pause it for Bell alone. A Bell-only pause, it said, would create “an asymmetric regulatory framework,” so the pause is open to every provider, on three conditions:

• The phone must unlock automatically within two business days after purchase, not after 60 days.
• The provider must unlock the phone when you ask, as the Wireless Code already requires.
• The provider must make reasonable efforts to tell you how long the phone will be locked, what that means for you, and that you can ask for it to be unlocked.

The Commission weighed it both ways. It saw “a strong public interest in maintaining a well-established rule,” and it questioned “the proportionality of this practice and its effect on such a large base of customers when compared to the relatively small number of persons who may be committing fraud or conducting other criminal activities.” It still found the balance tilted “slightly” toward a pause, because Bell's concerns about theft and fraud “must be taken seriously.”

The pause lasts until the CRTC decides its larger review of the consumer codes, proceeding 2026-134, whose public hearing opens November 30. By October 30, providers using the pause must file on that review's record how many phones they sold locked, how many unlock requests they received and how many they granted or refused, how many of those accounts were later cancelled for non-payment or fraud, and what locking did to theft and fraud.

What You Can Do Today

1. Check whether your phone is locked. On an iPhone, go to Settings, General, About: “No SIM restrictions” next to Carrier Lock means it is unlocked. On any phone, a SIM card from a different carrier is a quick test: a locked phone will reject it or ask for an unlock code.
2. Bought it on or after August 14, and it is still locked more than two business days later? Ask your provider to unlock it. The pause only covers the first two business days.
3. Need it unlocked sooner, to travel or to switch providers? Ask anyway. The rule that a provider must unlock your phone on request, at no charge, is not paused.
4. Write it down. The date you asked, who you spoke to, the reference number, and what you were told.
5. If the answer is no, or comes with a fee, escalate within the company (our Bell, Virgin Plus and Telus guides show where), then take it to the CCTS, the free, independent body that handles complaints about providers not following the Wireless Code.

The Case, and Your Say

Alongside the pause, the Commission ordered Bell to show cause why it should not be found in violation of the unlocking rules from April 23, 2025 to August 14, 2026. If it is, Bell must also show cause why a penalty of up to $10 million should not be imposed on the company, and up to $25,000 on its directors or officers. Under the Act, the purpose of such a penalty is “to promote compliance and not to punish.” Bell had questioned whether the November letter was binding; the Commission says it is.

Anyone who wants to take part can file an intervention until September 24, 2026, at 8 p.m. Eastern (5 p.m. Pacific). That date is ten days later than first set, and the reason is worth knowing: one individual pointed out that the Bell correspondence the notice described as being on the public record had not actually been posted. It went up on August 26, and the Commission extended the deadline so people could read it. Bell's reply is due October 5.

Things worth putting on the record, if they apply to you:

• What happened to you. A Bell or Virgin Plus phone that arrived locked; a switch or a trip that a locked phone got in the way of; an unlock you asked for, and the answer you got.
• What should follow if the Commission finds Bell broke the rule.
• How the pause is working for you, if you have bought a phone since August 14.

The mechanics: the CRTC's online intervention form (linked from the notice), one filing method only, numbered paragraphs, a summary if you go past five pages, and ***End of document*** at the end. Late filings are not accepted. Your name and comment go on the public record. Our plain-language guide walks through the form.

One limit on this case: whether phones should be sold locked in future belongs to the consumer-code review. The Commission has said it will consider submissions on “the continued appropriateness of the device unlocking rule” there. That proceeding's comment period has closed, and its hearing begins November 30.

Decision Status

Frequently Asked Questions

Further Reading

• Telecom Notice of Consultation CRTC 2026-210 — the show cause and the pause, with its conditions
• TNoC CRTC 2026-210-1 — the current deadlines
• CRTC letter to Bell, November 28, 2025 — the finding and the direction to stop
• CRTC staff letter to TELUS, December 9, 2025
• The Wireless Code — the CRTC's summary of your rights
• Telecom Decision CRTC 2019-169 — who the free-unlocking rule covers
• Apple: unlocking your iPhone for a different carrier