Sunday, December 17, 2006

Unlocking Cell Phones—it’s legal

You can now legally unlock your cell phones in US, a court ruling to this effect came out last month. It is indeed a great news for cell phone users but the question is, do you want to do it in a highly subsidized cell phone market, where most of the new phones are in the range of $50 to $100 with a new subscription.
The cost of unlocking the cell phone is in the range of $20 to $ 30 but with this process you will definitely lose the warranty and also some of the features like Bluetooth or Camera as most of the carriers’ tie-up these features with the locking software for revenue generation purpose.
If you want to do it on the corporate level, then a host of security issues crop up like running of unauthorized applications on the unlocked cell phones that may make corporate network data susceptible.
I think many of us will not take the trouble to get our cell phones unlocked,the only exception being if someone does it free but it is good to have an such option. However, the thing to watch would be the impact it will have on cell phone subsidies and carrier contracts
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