With this just released court ruling that removes legal penalties for 'unlocking' cell phones in the USA, what affect will this have on the user cell phone market here in LOS?

Will it be more beneficial for Americans to bring their less expensive (and now unlocked) top model Android 2.2 and iPhone cellular phones to be used here in LOS?

What?

No.

This ruling says that iPhone unlocking, and phone unlocking in general, is exempt from the DMCA. And a few other things too. Jailbreaking and unlocking was never illegal, nor did it ever carry any "legal penalties" anywhere in the world. Apple and lobby groups argued that it would be illegal under the DMCA - and they lost. Badly, too. Common sense has prevailed in the USA.

Doesn't change anything for Thailand as jailbroken phones from the USA have been coming into the country from pretty much day 1, and they will continue to come, and provide headaches for customers as software updates re-lock the phones.

Though who knows, maybe in a next step unlocking the phones officially will be made mandatory for AT&T, similar to the laws in many European countries. There you can carrier-lock a phone (any phone) only for a limited period of time; or you are obligated to unlock phones for a small fee.

Doesn't change anything for Thailand as jailbroken phones from the USA have been coming into the country from pretty much day 1, and they will continue to come, and provide headaches for customers as software updates re-lock the phones.

Though who knows, maybe in a next step unlocking the phones officially will be made mandatory for AT&T, similar to the laws in many European countries. There you can carrier-lock a phone (any phone) only for a limited period of time; or you are obligated to unlock phones for a small fee.

I paid $25 to some website to get my HTC G1 from Tmobile USA unlocked right after I bought it. Tmobile claimed that they could not get the unlock code from HTC and of course HTC said that Tmobile had the code. I suspended my Tmobile account for one year while living in Thailand. I use it with a DTAC SIM card. After about 10 months, it stopped working and would not boot up.

Are you saying that Tmobile USA did this with a software upgrade? My Gphone is not jail braked. When I went back to the states and reactivated my Tmobile account and put the Tmobile SIM card back in, the phone then booted up and starting working again. Does any one else have any experience with this kind of issue?

Doesn't change anything for Thailand as jailbroken phones from the USA have been coming into the country from pretty much day 1, and they will continue to come, and provide headaches for customers as software updates re-lock the phones.

Though who knows, maybe in a next step unlocking the phones officially will be made mandatory for AT&T, similar to the laws in many European countries. There you can carrier-lock a phone (any phone) only for a limited period of time; or you are obligated to unlock phones for a small fee.

I paid $25 to some website to get my HTC G1 from Tmobile USA unlocked right after I bought it. Tmobile claimed that they could not get the unlock code from HTC and of course HTC said that Tmobile had the code. I suspended my Tmobile account for one year while living in Thailand. I use it with a DTAC SIM card. After about 10 months, it stopped working and would not boot up.

Are you saying that Tmobile USA did this with a software upgrade? My Gphone is not jail braked. When I went back to the states and reactivated my Tmobile account and put the Tmobile SIM card back in, the phone then booted up and starting working again. Does any one else have any experience with this kind of issue?

Android people would probably be able to answer this comprehensively. But it's possible that Android updated itself, and intentionally or unintentionally, the update wiped out the hack that you used to unlock the phone.

I have heard Android phones automatically update without asking the user. But I don't have one, so not sure.

What?

No.

This ruling says that iPhone unlocking, and phone unlocking in general, is exempt from the DMCA. And a few other things too. Jailbreaking and unlocking was never illegal, nor did it ever carry any "legal penalties" anywhere in the world. Apple and lobby groups argued that it would be illegal under the DMCA - and they lost. Badly, too. Common sense has prevailed in the USA.

Doesn't change anything for Thailand as jailbroken phones from the USA have been coming into the country from pretty much day 1, and they will continue to come, and provide headaches for customers as software updates re-lock the phones.

Though who knows, maybe in a next step unlocking the phones officially will be made mandatory for AT&T, similar to the laws in many European countries. There you can carrier-lock a phone (any phone) only for a limited period of time; or you are obligated to unlock phones for a small fee.

Thanks Nikster, I miss-took the ruling for more than it really is.

Is the HTC Desire the best (soon-to-have[?] Android 2.2) cell phone in LOS? What is the name of its American version?

Is the only disadvantage to using an unlocked American cell phone in LOS, is that the user would be permanently 'stuck' with the application / version that is installed to make the (unlocked) phone operational? If this is the only disadvantage, then wouldn't the user in effect be hoping that future 'upgrades' would be minor and that he could continue using his unlocked phone with the knowledge that he may not be missing out on too much by not being able to 'upgrade'? Or am I missing something?