It appears that shadowing Apple and the iPhone, Dell has for some unbelievable reason manacled the new Dell Streak firmly to AT&T as if you were under the impression you could purchase the Dell Streak off contract for $549 and unlock it to use on another carrier, you are mistaken.

According to an article over on Phandroid by Kevin Krause, and by way of an article over on TgDaily, purchasing the off contract Dell Streak isn’t going to get you away from the AT&T stranglehold and crap network.

Apparently Dell blogger Lionel Menchaca posted a tweet to clear up any confusion over the off contract $549 device by tweeting…” Lots of folks are asking about the $549 version of #dellstreak. To be clear, it will not be unlocked. It is SIM-locked to AT&T.”

So there you have it, another smartphone shackled to AT&T’s network much like the iPhone 4, but who knows maybe in the not too distant future the Android community may come up with an Android jailbreak for the Dell Streak to set it free from the AT&T stranglehold.