Republic Wireless 5.0 Phones
Republic Wireless 5.0 phones purchased from the online store are locked. Once a Republic Wireless phone has been activated, the phone can be unlocked upon request. Contact our Help Team if you need your phone to be unlocked.
Note: The process to unlock the phone can take up to two business days.
Republic Wireless 3.0 and 4.0 Phones
All of our Republic Wireless 3.0 phones are unlocked. This means you can take them to a different provider as long as the phone meets the new providers Bring Your Own Phone (BYOP) requirements.
Republic Wireless 1.0 and 2.0 Phones
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This section applies to Moto E (1st and 2nd Gen.), Moto G (1st and 3rd Gen.), and Moto X (1st and 2nd Gen.) phones only. |
On February 11, 2015, CTIA - The Wireless Association's standards for the unlocking of mobile devices became effective. CTIA - The Wireless Association designed these standards to give customers of wireless service providers greater freedom - which Republic Wireless certainly endorses. These new standards explain that "unlocking" a device refers only to disabling software that would prevent someone from attempting to activate a device designed for one carrier's network on another carrier's network, even if that network isn't technologically compatible. In other words, "unlocking" a device will not necessarily make a device interoperable with other networks.
With that understanding, we do not "lock" any of our phones. However, the nature of our unique software that powers Republic Wireless is not technologically compatible with other carriers. We have explored - and will continue to explore - a way for Republic Wireless members to take their device to another carrier. Unfortunately, this is not easy and will require close coordination with both our equipment manufacturer and other carriers. At this time, we do not have any way to forecast when this will be possible.
In the meantime, we will never attempt to make any Republic Wireless member hostage to Republic Wireless. We never have...and we never will. If you have more interest in this topic, the FCC has a helpful FAQ page: Cell Phone Unlocking FAQs | Federal Communications Commission.