[Jedidah]

Thanks. So, in other words, the Tracfone maker is assuming that most of us are too ignorant to reconfigure the phone for use beyond the minutes already loaded on it. That actually makes the re-sale scheme sound plausible.

I still hope our guys are tailing them from the minute they leave the jailhouse.

[FreedomCalls]

Actually, it is being reconfigured so that it can be used on another network, you don't get any additional minutes out of it. You still have to buy any additional minutes. It's just that you are not locked-in to just Tracfone, you can now use it on Cingular, Nextel, or T-Mobile -- networks that don't offer any compatible cell phones at that price.

The local police are charging them with counterfeiting since the phones are altered and are supposedly not the same as the "real" phones that are unaltered. I don't know if that will stand, as no one has ever been convicted of breaking a law by deleting the subsidy lock. We'll have to wait and see.