Android and locked phones

[ohzopants]

I'm not really clear on the details of locked phones and the unlocking procedure (I'm not with a GSM provider yet) and no amount of googling has been able to answer this question for me:

Are Android phones "locked"?

I just don't see how you can lock a handset with an open OS. I always figured the locking was coded into the OS itself.

 

[Rob]

Good question.

We won't know until T-Mobile's device is launched. Google has said that carrier's will be able to customize their handset. To what degree? We don't know.

Having the Android SDK and seeing Android run on a live device that is on the market are two incredibly different things. To be honest, you'll just have to wait.

You can bet that as soon as Android is launched there will be a gang of people working on doing whatever type of "unlocking" they possibly can if it isn't completely open. Similar to the iPhone pwners.

 

[ohzopants]

That's pretty much what I thought, but I was really hoping that I'd missed some sort of announcement about this.

This is actually pretty important for all Canadians since the proposed copyright reform legislation outlaws unlocking phones and the penalty is a $20k fine!

Kill bill C-61!

 

[Rob]

$20k fine? That's outrageous. You might as well just hire a part time butler.