It was probably the feature that attracted me the most when I was shopping around for a new car at my local Saturn dealer a couple of years ago – the built-in, full-function, hands-free cell phone.

Punch a button, say “call” and then say the name of the person you want to reach and the phone does the rest. It’s even wired directly into the car’s sound system so you can adjust the volume with a couple of buttons conveniently located on the steering wheel, just as you do with the CD player. The voice on the other end of the line literally booms out of the sound system speakers. Best of all, your eyes never have to leave the road.

But there’s one thing I’ve never liked about my nifty little car phone: To use it you must sign up for wireless service with Verizon -- and only Verizon.

Unfortunately, this is something my car phone has in common with nearly every other cell phone in this country – something called “handset exclusivity.” Almost all cell phones in this country are sold by wireless carriers such as AT&T and Verizon. And they are “locked,” meaning they will only operate on that carrier’s network.

The only beneficiaries of these handset exclusivity deals are the wireless carriers. To buy a phone – especially popular models like the iPhone and Palm pre – consumers have to enter into a forced marriage with a specific carrier.

The carriers argue that they subsidize the sales of the cell phones chained to their networks. But that argument – which itself is very dubious at best – doesn’t make any sense when it comes to the hands-free phone in my Saturn. It was built into the car at the factory, just like the air conditioner.

I like my Saturn a lot, but the company had absolutely no business locking me into Verizon for wireless service. As far as anti-consumer tactics go, this is about as bad as it gets.

And it’s not the way it works in most of the rest of the world, where buying a cell phone and selecting a carrier are completely separate transactions. Cell phones aren’t locked like they are here. Changing carriers is as simple as changing a small data card in the handset.

Consumers Union, the publisher of this blog, has been fighting against handset exclusively for a long time. Unfortunately for consumers the issue has not been able to gain much traction in Washington – until now, that is.

Last month four U.S. senators – Kerry, Wicker, Dorgan and Klobuchar – sent a letter to the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission asking that the agency look into handset exclusivity deals between wireless carriers and cell phone makers. A few days later the FCC announced it would open a formal proceeding on the issue.

Earlier this month Sen. Herb Kohl, chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, sent a letter to both the FCC and the Justice Department outlining steps he wants to be taken to spur more competition in the cell phone industry. Kohl specifically asked the agencies to look into handset exclusivity deals.

On the same day the Justice Department indicated to the Wall Street Journal that the agency is considering an informal investigation into market power abuses by the top two wireless carriers, Verizon and AT&T.

Consumers Union believes handset exclusivity deals are inherently anti-consumer and supports all of the recent efforts mentioned above. All cell phones need to be free to operate on any compatible wireless network in order for true competition to take hold in the U.S. market.

What do you think?