Fwd: OpenMoko in my area?

[Andreas Kostyrka]

* Marcel de Jong <mdejong at gmail.com> [070115 23:24]:
> On 1/15/07, Mike <fromlists at talkingspider.com> wrote:
> >
> >I'm in the US, in New York city.  What networks can I use a Neo1973
> >phone on?  Do all GSM carriers accept all GSM phones?
> >
> >
> 
> In contrast to CDMA phones, a GSM phone isn't normally locked to a
> carrier, only the GSM-chip (SIMcard) that is inside your GSM phone is
> locked to your carrier.
> Some carriers offer you bundles with phones that are simlocked
> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIMLOCKS), which means that the phone
> and the SIMcard are paired, but if you have a SIMcard you can put it
> in any GSM-phone.
> 
> So no, they can't deny your phone.

Well, if they take some extreme measures they probably could deny it,
based on EMEI numbers. But no, it probably will work, although some
networks callcenter support might have problems and insist to walk you
through a specific phone model menu to do something ;(

SIM stands for Subscriber Identity Module btw :)

Basically phones come in different variants:
-) unlocked, you can put any SIM into it.
-) locked to SIMs specific operator.
-) locked to a specific SIM.

The last two are usually refered to as a SIMLOCK or simlocked phone,
and one usually gets one these in subsidized contracts. OTOH this is
strictly operator/country specific. There is one additional thing,
branded phones.

-) branded => that's orthogonal to the above, it means that the
firmware of the phone was altered to do things for a given operator.
Usually this involves logos, binding certain hotkeys to a fixed WAP
dialin. Or some US operators have been known to kill features that
would allow transfering images out of the phone with something else
than their data plan :(

It's orthogonal, because there are branded phones that are not
simlocked, and one can put a different SIM into it and use it.

As examples:
In Austria, most phones bought at a shop operated by a network are
simlocked to the network of the operator. (Speciality phones sometimes
are not, because they are sold in to small numbers)

In Germany, they like to brand the phones, but they usually come
without a simlock.

> The only limitation on which GSM-phones you can choose from depends on
> the frequency that is used in your country. But given that the Neo is
> quad band (it supports all current GSM-frequency ranges), they can't
> stop you from using the Neo.
> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSM#Radio_interface)
> 
> --
> Marcel
> 
> ps.
> I really don't like the fact that 'reply' doesn't work on this
But it does. That's why you have a "group reply" function in your
mailer. Some advanced mailers might even have a special "list reply"
function *g*

OTOH, adding a Reply-To to the messages pointing to the list makes
replying just to the poster for offtopic messages hard.

> mailinglist. I have to add the mailaddress myself. (this is the only
> mailinglist that I know, that does that this way)A
Nope, most technical mailing lists work this way. Only mailing lists
targeted to endusers that might have troubles operating their MUAs are
setup to include a Reply-To usually.

Andreas