Just in case you don’t know what cell phone locking is, take a look at your GSM phone. If you know what a SIM is, that’s what really represents, so to speak, you and your phone number to your carrier.
Now, the US still has CDMA networks, such as Sprint and Verizon, but most of the world works on GSM networks with SIMs. The beauty of a GSM phone is being able (theoretically) to swap the SIM between phones and thus use a different phone with the same number.
However, most phones are locked … that means the carrier has programmed the phone to ONLY work with SIMs issued on its network. Thus, a T-Mobile SIM wouldn’t work on a Cingular phone, unless the Cingular phone has been unlocked.
Although there are companies that will sell you unlocking codes, and these companies (you can easily find them on the web), if you ask your carrier, you may get a different answer.
… at least one company had filed lawsuits, claiming that breaking the software locks violates copyright law, which makes it illegal for people to circumvent copy- protection technologies without an exemption from the copyright office. Source: IHT
However, a new set of copyright rules will soon eliminate such arguments.
Owners of cellphones in the United States will soon be allowed to legally break software locks on their handsets in order to use them with competing carriers, under new copyright rules.
The new rule was approved Wednesday by the U.S. Library of Congress, along with other copyright exemptions. The other changes will let film professors copy snippets from DVDs for educational purposes and will allow blind people to use special software to read copyright-protected electronic books. Source: IHT
Sanity and fair use, if you ask me. With this ruling in place, perhaps carriers will stop issuing locked cell phones in the first place, or offer a pricier unlocked version for consumers. Nah! Now where’s that unlocking code for my phone?
