OpenMoko phone schedule announced
OpenMoko phone schedule announced
Posted Jan 22, 2007 18:02 UTC (Mon) by JoeBuck (subscriber, #2330)Parent article: OpenMoko phone schedule announced
But will any US carriers allow the use of an open phone on their networks?
Posted Jan 22, 2007 18:15 UTC (Mon)
by anonymous1 (guest, #41963)
[Link]
Posted Jan 22, 2007 19:53 UTC (Mon)
by bradfitz (subscriber, #4378)
[Link] (1 responses)
But I know very little about this, and I welcome anybody to school me with more accurate information. :-)
Posted Jan 26, 2007 16:33 UTC (Fri)
by smurf (subscriber, #17840)
[Link]
So yes, carriers could decide to block the OpenMoko phones.
Why they would want to do that is another matter. Presumably, people buy that phone in order to, well, phone, and blocking that would lose them money -- as well as opening them up to breach-of-contract lawsuits (the phone will have regulatory approval, after all).
I'm looking forward to getting one of these. Even though it doesn't do UMTS. Yet. :-/
Posted Jan 22, 2007 20:50 UTC (Mon)
by ajross (guest, #4563)
[Link] (1 responses)
Posted Jan 23, 2007 0:12 UTC (Tue)
by AndyBurns (guest, #27521)
[Link]
Not always the case, in the UK some networks (certainly Orange, maybe others too) lock the phone to their network, due to the handset subsidy you get by signing a long term contract (rather than pay as you go), for a fee they should unlock at the end of the term, alternatively every "street corner" phone shop offers a cheap unlocking service.
However they don't prevent you using your SIM in another phone on their network.
While abroad you can roam onto another carrier's network (and pay through the nose for international call diverts) but unless the phone is unlocked, you can't buy and use a local SIM card to get cheaper calls.
They should have no problem. There is a proprietary chip that controls the radio, atleast from that perspective the user cant mess the radio signals.OpenMoko phone schedule announced
As far as I've heard, the carrier can only detect that the phone's using an approved radio chip (which the OpenMoko is), but can't tell beyond that what phone you're using.OpenMoko phone schedule announced
Phones (are supposed to) have a unique identifier (the IMEI -- your phone is supposed to display it when you dial *#06#), part of which is a manufacturer code.OpenMoko phone schedule announced
GSM phones are (modulo some technicalities about which frequency set they support) able to carrier-hop at will. The user credentials are stored on a "SIM" card only, the phone hardware is never locked to a carrier. I'm using a Motorola A780 linux phone on T-Mobile's US network right now, for example.OpenMoko phone schedule announced
> the phone hardware is never locked to a carrierOpenMoko phone schedule announced