USA Today has an extensive piece on the practice of carriers locking mobile handsets. It’s a familiar complaint from consumer groups, which receive the starndard answers from carriers. To summarize: “On the plus side, the U.S. system gives Americans super-cheap phones. Contracts help stabilize carrier revenue; that, in turn, helps keep monthly service prices cheap. On the downside, U.S. cellphones are not as feature-rich as phones in other parts of the world, says Muzib Khan, vice president of management and engineering for phone maker Samsung.” There is a call for the government to step in and regulate the industry so that they unlock phones, and let other devices on their networks. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin opined that the networks would eventually be open, with the process being driven by consumers.

Interestingly, an argument is made that handset subsidies inhibit the uptake of mobile multimedia services… “Because U.S. consumers pay so little for their phones, Khan says, they aren’t as “motivated” to learn how to use them properly. As a result, he says, they don’t get all the benefits…“It’s an endless loop,” Samsung’s engineering chief says. “Until some changes are made, (U.S. consumers) will be in that loop forever.” I’m not sure how true that argument is, but it’s worth noting that buyers of the relatively expensive iPhone use the features so much it has resulted in abnormally large bills.