Doubly surprised.
I don't know what's more astonishing.
a) That the US allowed the telcos to successfully lobby for the original move to make unlocking a crime.
b) That the legislature eventually responded to people's outrage about the above travesty.
The lesson (I guess) is that big business will push us around as far as it can until they go just that bit too far.
Locking quite unnecessary anyway if the customer is locked into a 24 month contract.
In the case of pre-pay (Pay As You Go) the telcos could just drop the subsidies on those phones.
Probably, the real solution is to uncouple the telcos from the selling of phones -- let them sell connections and regular electronics chains sell phones. Chances are both connection deals and phone prices would be cheaper with more competition.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
