Marketing fodder for Neo: FCC presentation

[Michael Murphy]

On Thursday 22 February 2007 2:22 pm, Jeff Andros wrote:
> On 2/22/07, Gabriel Ambuehl <gabriel_ambuehl at buz.ch> wrote:
> > On Thursday 22 February 2007 19:43:26 Sam Kome wrote:
> > > Yes, if the phone in question has been locked to another carrier:
> > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsidy_lock
> >
> > Still, nobody really forces you to buy SIM locked phone for all I
> > know. If you want cheap phones, that is usually the price...
> >
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>
> in the U.S. carriers are basically the only "real" source of
> phones... and they only sell one kind.  it's also next to impossible
> to buy a plan without purchasing a phone as well(albeit a heavily
> subsidized one).  while there are retailers that sell sim-unlocked
> phones most of these are either internet order or slightly shady.  as
> I understand it, most other places this is not the case but it's the
> reality here
>
> when Sean's dad, or other "normal" consumers go out to purchase a
> phone, the only trustworthy source they can really find is from the
> carrier... so it's a self-perpetuating ecosystem

My experience has been somewhat different.  I purchased my last phone, 
under a contract, from CellularOne in the US.  It's a gsm quad-band 
Motorola V400.  It was unlocked at the time of purchase.  I've been off 
contract for over a year now and have successfully used sims from other 
carriers.  

The store from which I purchased the phone has told me that CellOne does 
not lock its phones.   

Before I found out about the Neo, I was planning on purchasing my next 
phone from Nokia's company-owned NYC store, where I got my N800.  All 
of their phones are unlocked.  

Michael