Friday, November 24, 2006
Cell Phone Users Allowed To Break Software Locks
Posted by Ed Hansberry in "NEWS" @ 12:00 PM
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061123/ap_on_hi_te/digital_copyright
"Cell phone owners will be allowed to break software locks on their handsets in order to use them with competing carriers under new copyright rules announced Wednesday...The new rules will take effect Monday and expire in three years. In granting the exemption for cell phone users, the Copyright Office determined that consumers aren't able to enjoy full legal use of their handsets because of software locks that wireless providers have been placing to control access to phones' underlying programs. Providers of prepaid phone services, in particular, have been trying to stop entrepreneurs from buying subsidized handsets to resell at a profit. But even customers of regular plans generally can't bring their phones to another carrier, even after their contracts run out."
This seems to be talking about phones that are SIM-locked so that only a SIM from the carrier you purchased the phone from will work. In the case of GSM phone users, this means you could stick any SIM in the phone and it would work on that carrier's service, similar to buying an unlocked phone in the first place. CDMA users won't be so lucky, at least in the US. I have seen no evidence that Sprint or Verizon would be willing to activate a phone on their network that didn't come from one of their stores. Additionally, this says nothing of the charge that a carrier like Cingular or T-Mobile would charge to give you the unlock code, only that they will have to provide it.
"Cell phone owners will be allowed to break software locks on their handsets in order to use them with competing carriers under new copyright rules announced Wednesday...The new rules will take effect Monday and expire in three years. In granting the exemption for cell phone users, the Copyright Office determined that consumers aren't able to enjoy full legal use of their handsets because of software locks that wireless providers have been placing to control access to phones' underlying programs. Providers of prepaid phone services, in particular, have been trying to stop entrepreneurs from buying subsidized handsets to resell at a profit. But even customers of regular plans generally can't bring their phones to another carrier, even after their contracts run out."
This seems to be talking about phones that are SIM-locked so that only a SIM from the carrier you purchased the phone from will work. In the case of GSM phone users, this means you could stick any SIM in the phone and it would work on that carrier's service, similar to buying an unlocked phone in the first place. CDMA users won't be so lucky, at least in the US. I have seen no evidence that Sprint or Verizon would be willing to activate a phone on their network that didn't come from one of their stores. Additionally, this says nothing of the charge that a carrier like Cingular or T-Mobile would charge to give you the unlock code, only that they will have to provide it.
