Have you ever seen a cell phone that you really wanted only to discover that it was not available from your service provider? This is a situation that has faced many people, but may not be an issue for much longer. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has promised that a pivotal airwaves auction early next year will allow people to buy the cell phones they want, not just those offered by their service providers.

This would be a good change for people interested in the phone that I talked about last week. For people who have SIM chips in their phones, this is not currently much of an issue, most of those phones can be “unlocked” and used on any network, but for those whose service providers do not use these chips (mine doesn’t) this could be a big deal.

The AP article that brought this change to my attention says that this may not be as likely as the FCC would have you think. At the earliest, this would start to take effect in 2010. The article also points out other barriers to this happening, but we can be hopeful can’t we?

This is an issue that has needed be addressed. How many other things in life do you have where the service provider limits your options for the equipment that you use their service on? Your ISP will let you connect any router or computer that you own, the cable company will let you use any TV, VCR, or DVD Player (with the exception of DVR equipment which is usually owned by the company and “rented” by the user) and the power company let’s you plug in any appliance or device that you desire.