Unlocking Cell Phones Becomes Illegal In The U.S. On January 26th

Originally Posted by Mikethaler

Maybe since Vz isn't a GSM carrier, they don't really know what unlocking is? Question - Can you use a Vz. phone on Sprint and vice-versa?

I have never tried either BB phone on Sprint. I have on Vodafone (Germany), Yoigo (Spain), and T-Mobile (using Solavei as the SIM card provider). No problems

Originally Posted by hennesseystealth

I have never been able to get anyone at Verizon to agree to unlock my old 9530 or 9550. Both were long out of contract (9550 was never under contract). Everyone says that it is not allowed under any circumstances. So, I just used an outside source so I could use a Yoigo SIM card while in Spain. Any trick to getting them to unlock a phone?

It's unfortunate that you didn't unlock it before it became illegal. My dad had a Storm 9350 from what I recall, and I was able to unlock it, but only in terms of the GSM portion of it, so then in essence you could use it on T-mo or AT&T in the US, and any other GSM provider in the world that works on the frequencies it supports. Like some others mentioned, you could also unlock your BlackBerry(s) in a different country if you happen to be leaving the US. Or you could be a rebel and unlock it/them yourself, and say you did it/them before the yesterday, when it became illegal ;-)

It's still ok to unlock (via a third party) phones bought before January 26th.

Now I just see that law as a useless law to restrict technology, I don't see how unlocking phones is related to hacking. Can someone tell me what are the chances of this law coming to Canada.

Originally Posted by djredalert

Now I just see that law as a useless law to restrict technology, I don't see how unlocking phones is related to hacking. Can someone tell me what are the chances of this law coming to Canada.

More likely the Federal Government in the US will be bought off to change the law to make transporting an unlocked phone a violation of the Patriot Act. Then your **** will be sitting in Guantanamo or in a Federal Pen with terrorists and drug smugglers. I think the US has a higher per capita incarceration rate than most of the rest of the world. They are really good at creating laws that are so complicated that almost anyone can be convicted of a felony if they want to come after you. Chalk this up to my Libertarian rant of the day...