Canadian PM: New bill to BAN SIM/Cellphone locks in Canada

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As per the title, Bill C-560 could very well be foreseeing the END of cellphone locks. Those locks are what prevents a customer from using an old GSM phone, for example.

I agree. Providers regain the cash they lost selling a handset at "discount" price through a contract. Through the length of the contract, the handset is paid for, and if one decides to take their buisness to a different carrier, like say a competing GSM provider, then they SHOULD BE ABLE TO.

Removing a SIM lock is delicate buisness, and an unexperimented user might end up permanently locking the phone trying to unlock it. Like my old 3590, for example, which is hardlocked, meaning that even if I get the correct unlock code, the phone will reject it. I tried generic unlock codes, and shared codes, ignorant of the fact the phone would become hardlock after the fifth attempt. There you go, the phone I paid for now is a paperweight unless I get a new SIM from the same provider.

Some phones are downright a pain in the ass to unlock. The RAZR V3R, for example. This phone's bootloader and generation (Neptune LTE2) makes it require a testpoint to unlock, and it's a royal PITA to do, I know, I tried.

My V3R originally was a prepaid phone, and on prepaid, the phone costs full retail price. Since you're basically buying the phone outright, it's yours and you should be able to jump to a (compatible, of course) provider's network if you so damn well please.

Or my Samsung Hype. Rogers prepaid kit. Paid for the phone in full. I can't use it on Fido -- which is owned by ROGERS, BTW. This is bulls***.

Or, even more hysterical... the strange case of TELUS MIKE. MiKE is the name of the iDEN network provider in Canada. MiKE iDEN phones are SIM locked. Want me to pay roaming charges, I guess? You morons don't even charge LD for DC! Jump to the competition? IMPOSSIBLE, THERE IS ONLY ONE iDEN NETWORK IN CANADA!

*AHEM* But I digress. If this bill is adopted, it would bring a fresh air of desperately needed competition to the Canadian cellphone industry. Not that I give a <d>uck, being an iDEN user with no competition to go.

Too bad this bill will not apply to CDMA phones. Then again, diehard CDMA users do not care about locks... we own the keys to our CDMA phone's mind, body and soul, and used in conjunction with the proper tools, are a proof to break the widely spread myth about CDMA that CDMA phones CANNOT be used on ANY network other than the native network. Not going to elaborate on the procedure, but it works, I know that much.