Upcoming iPhone Firmware Likely To Make Unlocked Phones Permanently Inoperable
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Or so foretells the talking heads at Apple. Also, Mr. Jobs was quoted as saying the next firmware flash was likely to ‘brick’ any unlocked phones.
Steve says that Apple will vigorously defend the phones from being made to work with another carrier’s Subscriber Identity Modules. He made the reference to a game of cats and mice, with the game evolving and constantly changing.
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What Mr. Jobs must know by now is that there are programs which ‘first, do no harm’, allowing the unlocking to be reversed when necessary - like getting the battery replaced. The word is out on phones taken in for repair that have been unlocked. Any phones unlocked when brought into the view of that usually friendly Apple representative will be rendered without warranty and blacklisted on the network.
Since I have no interest in this I will say that the poor souls who bought the iPhone without knowing the pitfalls of AT&T service are to be pitied. However, on the side of the owners of the iPhone, Mr. Jobs was hallucinating if he thought that a GSM phone was not going to be used on other GSM networks. That is, after all, half the reason to use the inferior GSM service. If Mr. Jobs wanted to maintain control of the phones, a deal with the absolute control freaks at Sprint should have been struck. Not only does it lock the phones down, it makes sure no other CDMA phones will be used on their network by listing the serial numbers of the phones manufactured by the approved vendors, and no unlisted serial numbers can connect to the network. This is analogous to listing MACs allowed on your wireless network - and ESNs from a cell phone are a bit harder to spoof.
So, iPhone users may have the coolest phone on the planet, but they will have to settle for the third best network to connect to.
[tags] Apple, iPhone, GSM, unlocking, AT&T, SIM, ESN, Sprint [/tags]
Technorati Tags: Apple, iPhone, GSM, unlocking, AT&T, SIM, ESN, Sprint
8 Comments
Kawa
September 24th, 2007
at 10:14pm
I don’t know about you but when I am buying a product I do not want to participate on a cat-mouse game… Furthermore I don’t want to be the mouse…
the oracle
September 25th, 2007
at 2:06am
I would not buy the phone for that reason. As I said, half the reason to have GSM is the ability to use the phones on any GSM carrier.
Thanks for the comment.
dingo
September 25th, 2007
at 5:37pm
Would be very interesting to see this tried in Australia - we would tear a new asshole in Mr Jobs.
This sort of attitude is why Apple is and always has been a fringe player here - Aussies don’t appreciate being dictated to by manipluating dickheads (politicians excluded!!)
Jay Miller
September 25th, 2007
at 5:42pm
In your article about ATT iPhone service:
Curious as to what Cell-Phone service you think is best if ATT is third?
Regards
Jay
the oracle
September 25th, 2007
at 6:27pm
dingo - perhaps that’s why there has been no announcement of when the iPhone will be available down under.
Thanks for the comment.
the oracle
September 25th, 2007
at 6:35pm
Jay, as someone who has sold Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile, and worked closely with others who have sold AT&T, and previously Cingular, and Nextel, I feel I am in a good position to speak.
Verizon has the widest coverage area, and uses the best technology, CDMA, T-Mobile has the best pricing plans, and customer service, Sprint stinks at customer service, and has lousy coverage. And AT&T has somewhat better service and coverage than Sprint.(By the way, I’ve personally had service from Verizon, Sprint, and Nextel - and had extended use of Cingular and TMobile)
So —– from an educated perspective, Verizon 1 (because using a phone successfully is what we all want to do), T-Mobile 2, AT&T 3, and Sprint 4. Alltel and other small carriers don’t have enough market share nationally to comment on.
Will
September 26th, 2007
at 11:50am
One last question
about service. Since I have a lot of rural area I go to signal strength is important. I know ATT uses 800 mhz, which carries further, but does Verizon still use it as well? The PCS networks have trouble getting signal where I need it. I use T Mobile now and have trouble. about service. Since I have a lot of rural area I go to signal strength is important. I know ATT uses 800 mhz, which carries further, but does Verizon still use it as well? The PCS networks have trouble getting signal where I need it. I use T Mobile now and have trouble.
the oracle
September 26th, 2007
at 7:43pm
Verizon uses 800 MHz as a rule, but in the midwest there are pockets where PCS (1800-1900 MHz) frequencies are used. This was a result of the expansion that formed Verizon. Best way to find out is call a local Verizon Wireless store and ask - but even then, the best way to find if the signal is where you need it to be is to seek out someone who has Verizon and check their phone in the area you need to have coverage.
No provider is perfect. Sprint does have pockets where their coverage is best! But over the nation, Verizon is tops. As for 800MHz AT&T, it sounds like you’re in the southeast, ‘ cause most everywhere else the change has been made to GSM and higher frequencies. Here in California, AT&T had a lot of customer resistance to the GSM move, but the customers either surrendered to it or switched - that was in 2003.