[stevedusa]

Well guys the politics aside, to my understanding the reason for Sprint's TP2 have the MCC 310 and 311 (US-based GSM networks) blocked is pretty much a mixture of FCC decision and carrier's decision.

Sprint figured (they might have ppl in this forum too, lurking around) out that instead of putting on a subsidy (SIM lock) on a phone, which in theory does has the ability of not have the end-users utilizing non-carrier approved SIMs such as VZW and Telus is doing. However that's pretty much a gray area if you know what I mean (users can call in themselves to ask for a subsidy unlock).

So Sprint went out and actually modified their radio ROM. I remember someone has posted a technical chart regarding how that selection works. But long story short, the phone checks for subsidy lock first, if it does not exist then it checks the phone/carrier's ID, if it's a Sprint then if the MCC are 310/311 then it refuses to work. I believe it's a HTC/Sprint combined effort to outsmart us "geeks" or, above-average consumers.

As for a work-around, the only way to do with Sprint is flash a patched radio. However to my understanding in order to flash a GSM radio (even when it's part of a combo radio such as in our case,) the phone must be "security & CID unlocked". I was confused about this until I realized that it is NOT the same thing as HardSPL unlocked. I believe there is more in the Upgrades section regarding the differences between HardSPL and CID/Security unlock.

As for why it's not free? Well money aside, making a HardSPL or a security/CID unlocker does take more than making a ROM: Reverse engineering and compiling. Sometimes when there are no way out of it (as the phone simply won't take any subsidy unlock codes at ALL or no way to unlock it by end-users), a little appreciation is well, appreciated if you know what I mean.

Then again, I don't think any of the CDMA providers would want their phone end up being used on competitor networks, nor it would support US-based 3G bands.