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This weekend, Apple's new iPhone will debut with incredible fanfare. However, there will be an unpleasant surprise hidden in the fine print of the sales contracts. While the GSM technology used by the iPhone is designed to easily let users move their phones between wireless providers, Apple has chosen to lock their iPhones to AT&T's network for the foreseeable future.
This means that an iPhone purchased in the U.S. will only work on the AT&T network, regardless of what SIM card is placed in it. It cannot be taken to another provider such as T-Mobile, or taken overseas for use on networks in other countries.
Tell Steve Jobs: Unlock the iPhone!
Apple could use its influence to set an example and open up the wireless market. If Apple leads, we would all benefit from competition and reduced rates. Instead, Apple has chosen to lock iPhone customers in with AT&T -- a corporation whose practices seem to run counter to everything Apple stands for.
This is, of course, the same AT&T that enabled warrantless wiretapping and turned over consumers' phone records to the Bush Administration's National Security Agency. The same AT&T that is doing its very best to destroy net neutrality and create a "slow lane" Internet for the rest of us. And the same AT&T whose new Chairman's political donations are almost entirely to conservative Republicans.
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