While Canadian telcos are still dragging their feet in following the U.S. example of making cellphone data fees more competitive, the U.S. telcos are about to scratch each other’s eyes out after the arrival of Linux-based handsets.

There have been a couple of Linux-based cellphones before, notably one created by Trolltech, which was bought by Nokia. The Openmoko Neo Freerunner, however, much delayed but now due to be released in April or May, is currently the only cellphone covered by the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 licence, which covers “free” software. And now Openmoko is raising the ante not only by offering a free operating system and software, but is its handset design as well. Openmoko has posted the computer design (CAD) files on its website and people are invited to muck about with them to make personalized cases.

But don’t get too excited: You’ll need a 3D printer, which runs into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and expertise well beyond the average geek’s. If you go to a commercial outfit, it will also be expensive, and require customers to order lots of about 5,000 before professional 3D printing companies will pay attention. So yes, it’s a bit of a gimmick, but I can see large corporations creating their own branded cellphones.

The Neo Freerunner will be enabled with Wi-Fi, meaning it will not require a service provider at all when within reach of a wireless hotspot either at home or at work. And that includes making Voice over IP (VoIP) phone calls. When not in range of a hotspot, users can opt to use their telco accounts (the Neo is designed to run on a GSM SIM card). It will also have a global-positioning service chip inside, so that users will be able to connect to a satellite directly, and not use GPS as a costly subscription from a telco.

Aside from its efforts to free users from telcos, the Neo’s other features include an accelerometer, which will protect the data when it senses the handset is in free-fall (it’s the thing that car airbags use), and a touch-screen interface.

I spoke to Openmoko’s Steven Mosher about the free CAD files, which in a colourful phrase he says will “free up the flesh of the phone.” His explanation of the revolution he wants started by the Neo is to free cellphones from the companies that make them and their software. He says that makers of these proprietary operating systems “want to control your eyeballs,” and he wants to “annoy the carriers — that’s what we live for.”

Or, as Openmoko’s website says it: “If you can’t open it, you don’t own it. Our first key unlocked the software, unleashing the community to re-craft the code. Now, we free the case and share the keys to Industrial Design. Developers who want to re-craft the case are set free.”

The one sticking point about this phone is that it is an intensive user of wireless data (such as e-mail or surfing the Web), and so users might have to think twice about where they are before they start downloading what they want — be it e-mail or software updates. But it’s a small consideration if one is going to save some real money.

Superficially, this places Openmoko in the same position as the Linux desktop operating system; more important, however, it will put greater downward pressure on the rates charged by telcos, who are in such ferocious competition in the U.S. that they will be forced to react one way or another. (Microsoft was insulated from the Linux revolution because of its massively dominant and pre-existing market share for Windows.)

And what would the future of Openmoko be for Canada? I can’t see it embraced by a community of telcos that figured that the hysteria surrounding the iPhone launch last year wasn’t enough reason to bring it here.

But if Openmoko succeeds in the United States, where the downward pressure on subscription rates is fierce, it might have a future here.