Locked handsets mean many miss out on cheap SIM deals

It has been revealed that many people are missing out on great value SIM only deals because they have handsets that are locked, which stops them from switching to SIM cards from other networks.

It has been reported recently that there are millions of people that are missing out on great value SIM card deals because they have locked mobile phone handsets, which effectively prevent them from using the SIM cards of another network provider.

The data comes from a survey based on research that was carried out by YouGov. According to the results of the research around twenty five million mobile phone users are unable to freely switch to another provider’s SIM card because they have locked mobile phones. This equates to fifty five percent of mobile phone users being unable to freely switch to another better value SIM card from a different provider.

One industry official from SIM only mobile network giffgaff said: “Consumers risk being held hostage by their mobile network to the tune of £400m simply to switch networks with their existing phone. The practice of selling mobile phones locked to one network, or sim-locking as it is known in the industry, is having a big impact on consumers’ ability to get the best deal on the market.”

Nearly two thirds of those that were polled as part of the research said that in the future, if they were able to, they would always opt for a handset that was unlocked so that they had more freedom to switch to another SIM card if they wished to.

Source – Guardian