Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. ISSA. I thank the chairman.

Mr. Speaker, when I was alerted as to this change, like Mr. Polis, I asked, What will be the impact? And, at

first glance, I was concerned that it could be a poison pill, that it could limit the ability, for example, for somebody to take trade-ins of thousands of phones and unlock them, but I found no such case because they are buying from an individual.

At that moment, they choose to unlock it as part of the arrangement, and you now have an unlocked phone. There is no prohibition on buying 500 unlocked phones and selling 500 unlocked phones.

As a matter of fact, when I went through the language of bulk sales, I could find essentially no possible business plan that would require the unlocking of bulk phones, except as to buying from a wholesaler who did not intend them to be unlocked, intended them to be sold individually, unlocking them, and then selling them off to another party.

Any transaction in which the product gets to an individual or in which unlocking occurs at the time of the individual is fully covered by this bill.

So although I did share the concern of the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Polis) that there was a scenario in which somebody would not be able to unlock a phone, I discovered that there was nothing that the consumer would be affected by that could possibly affect this.

For example, let me say that, hypothetically, I am that individual, that company, and Mr. Polis and I have something in common, which is we both ran companies. If I am an individual and I want to buy 1,000 locked phones, there is going to be an easy unlock capability. Third parties are going to be able to provide the unlock capability.

I can buy 1,000 locked phones or 100,000 locked phones. I can sell them to somebody else, who sells them to somebody else. Anytime that company or individual is down to the end user who wants to unlock a phone, that capability is there.

Mr. Polis is one of the most intelligent and knowledgeable and trained people in this area of anyone in Congress, but if we go through each of the workarounds that we, in business, would do, I can find no scenario whatsoever in which this would stop the consumer from receiving an unlocked phone, if they chose to, even if, in the interim basis, there were many transactions of 10 or 100,000 phones of bulk sale.

It does not prevent the sale of unlocked bulk phones being sold and resold. It does not prevent the bulk sale of locked phones. So you only have to ensure, as I understand the law--and I have checked it against the language--that the unlocking occurs in support of the consumer.

So though I share the opposition's concern, I believe--I have looked through, vetted it, and like Mr. Polis, as a businessman, I have found that it stops no business plan and hurts no consumer.

I thank the chairman for bringing this legislation. I urge its support.

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