EarlyMon, your statement is not correct.
The law in the U.S. has absolutely nothing to do with this issue.
Here's
an article that talks specifically about the difficulty of taking phones from one CDMA network to another CDMA network in the U.S. Notice that the article says
nothing about the law - nothing at all. The article is clear that the "problem" is caused by carriers and their policies.
Here's more info on the MetroPCS example the article describes:
MetroPCS is a regional CDMA network operator. Unlike VM USA, MetroPCS allows you to use non-MetroPCS CDMA phones. The official program is called MetroFLASH.
You can read about it on their website. Here's an article that talks about the MetroFLASH service. Obviously, MetroPCS is not breaking the law or they wouldn't be doing this (for several years now) and publicizing it, right? If you're still going to insist that this is somehow illegal, just saying "The law is involved in the U.S. on this." doesn't cut it - you need to cite the relevant federal law.
You can't bring a Verizon/Sprint/Boost/MetroPCS/etc. phone to Virgin Mobile USA because VM corporate policy won't let you. VM USA could change their mind tomorrow and start accepting other carrier's phones and there is no law or regulation stopping them.
Edit: Don't confuse cloning and flashing. They are two different things. However, both have the same end result of making a phone from Carrier A work on Carrier B's network. Cloning involves two phones and some skulduggery. Flashing involves one phone only and requires official involvement from the "new" carrier. Cloning is what people do when a company won't provide flashing. Cloning is illegal when certain conditions are met and I've posted a link to the relevant law on cloning in a post above. Flashing is never illegal because there is no law preventing it. Somewhere out there right now a MetroPCS employee is flashing a non-MetroPCS phone and its all perfectly legal.
