Phone SIM Locks: Why Do Carriers Even Bother?

We've been down this road before: a new iOS version is released that undoes all of the nasty stuff hackers did to the previous version. A week later those same hackers blow out a jailbreak and then a few days later they release a full unlock (the latest iOS unlock is only for 3G and 3GS right now, so iPhone 4 users are stuck for now.) Given that this is pretty much standard procedure, why don't carriers just give up? Sadly, most other phones don't get this sort of white glove treatment. A grey market exists that traffics in phone unlocks for many devices including Blackberries and Nokias. Why? Because someone, somewhere wants to move their phone from country A to country B. The vast majority of phone users will never want to this but there is still plenty of demand. So why not ship without the lock? Well, there are a few possible answers, barring the obvious "Carriers suck."

Phone SIM Locks: Why Do Carriers Even Bother?

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How to Bypass Carriers Apple-Style

It could sell competitive roaming deals to its customers. International roaming is horribly expensive for telephony and even more so for data. If Apple would connect with these networks directly, the networks wouldn’t know whether or not the customer was from France, the UK, or Zimbabwe. All it would see is an Apple IMSI. The first six digits would direct the device to Apple, which could then offer its customer a data roaming deal at prices as low as local rates. Customers could buy data roaming for an hour, six hours, a day or a year and operators could compete for their patronage. Apple would guarantee the payments and collect these through iTunes. It would pay the carrier after the customer has made use of the service.

How to Bypass Carriers Apple-Style

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Comment on How to Bypass Carriers Apple-Style by Tim

If this happens only with Apple devices, it won't make a difference since Apple products are used by only a small number of people

Post originale: http://gigaom.com/2010/11/20/how-to-bypass-carriers-apple-style/#comment-518659

Comment on 5 Reasons a Google Phone Still Won’t Disrupt Carriers by Ohhjohnny

Metro does have it's own 3G network and infrastructure

Post originale: http://gigaom.com/2010/11/19/5-reasons-a-google-phone-still-wont-disrupt-carriers/#comment-518671

5 Reasons a Google Phone Still Won’t Disrupt Carriers

Is Google opening itself up to a potential revenue loss as carriers cut Google services from Android? Perhaps, and one way to address that risk is by building a Google phone, says ZDNet. It didn't work with the Nexus One and it won't work now.

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Comment on How to Bypass Carriers Apple-Style by Otto

This is all nice and all, but what would be the incentive for any operator in the world to allow this? Just having iPhone to sell means nothing if you can not sell minutes and data as well. On the other hand, consumer would be in perpetual roaming and there is no way that roaming prices would be lower than non-roaming prices. Also, if I'm not mistaken, transfer wifi-3g is already possible on T-Mobile network in US (for select phones or planned for "near" future in other cases).

Post originale: http://gigaom.com/2010/11/20/how-to-bypass-carriers-apple-style/#comment-518648

Google Voice and FaceTime – Why the Carriers Are Losing Their Voice

Lately it seems like there is endless news around messaging, VoIP and video calling. Apple recently announced they’d added FaceTime support for the Mac, and had shipped 19 million FaceTime-enabled iOS devices since June. Google Voice also made headlines last week for an outage, but I think the bigger news associated with that downtime is how fast they’ve been growing. And there’s been a flurry of startup activity around messaging and communication as well, such as the super innovative GroupMe releasing an Android App. The resounding theme from all these seemingly disparate announcements is that messaging, voice, video, and chatting applications are on fire. Sure, we all use social media, but it sure hasn’t dampened people’s affinity for texting or making a call.

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For Broadband Carriers, Startup Ushers In A Cloud-y Future

It is hard being a broadband provider today — not only are new web services putting extra stress on the network infrastructure but they are also feeling the competitive pressure on their revenues. Against such a backdrop, broadband service providers are looking for ways to make better use of their network infrastructure. The latest trick: use excess processing power in their data centers to help shape and route traffic more effectively and cheaply.