Metro PCS now accepts competitors’ handsets

Look out Sprint and Verizon. That captive handset you provided can now be reused with Metro PCS. There are plenty of caveats. Forget data service, Metro is voice / text only. Metro’s coverage is spotty and as late comer, they have some of the least effective spectrum. Having said that, if don’t mind a few quirks, you can get dirt cheap month to month service without buying a new phone from Metro.

This week’s announcement by the Dallas-based regional carrier is one of a series of moves in the industry that amount to a gradual opening of the U.S. wireless market, giving consumers more choice over what phones to use on what networks.

Carriers generally sell phones that are locked to their own service. This protects their business model, which is based on subsidizing the cost of the phone by hundreds of dollars, then making that money back on monthly service fees.

MetroPCS’s move threatens these traditional rules. It allows customers with certain models of phones from Sprint Nextel Corp., Verizon Wireless, Alltel Corp. and a few other carriers to bring their phones to MetroPCS stores, where they will be reprogrammed. (Florida Today)

In the markets where MetroPCS  operates, this could actually shake things up a bit. That’s good news for consumers.