Unlocking iPhone 3G to avoid AT&T

AT&T (formerly Cingular) and T-Mobile are the primary GSM carriers in the USA. I understand T-Mobile has a tower sharing agreement with AT&T in some areas, so T-Mobile coverage may not be much better. By operating a simpler GSM only network, T-Mobile does offer several attractive plans with lower rates.

Verizon and Sprint both use CDMA, but on different frequency bands so their respective phones are not generally cross network compatible.

3G technology uses a form of Wideband CDMA which was designed as the next evolutionary step for GSM networks (also known as UMTS). Some observers hope and believe cell phone carriers will gradually converge on UMTS or similar common technology to maximize interoperability and economies of scale, but this will be a complicated long term process.

> Some observers hope and believe cell phone carriers will gradually converge on
> UMTS or similar common technology to maximize interoperability and economies
> of scale, but this will be a complicated long term process.

I don't know. It seems like the phone companies like incompatible
phones. It prevents people from running out and buying phones that
might do something the providers don't want or get around things that
they could charge for.

For example, Verizon disables much of the Bluetooth capabilities of
their phones. Bluetooth earpieces are fine, but don't try to connect
your phone to your computer. You might be able to send photos and
songs back and forth, and Verizon wouldn't be able to charge you for
them.

These companies want to control how you connect to the Internet and
what you can do with your phone. I don't think they want to be able to
have a common set of technologies that will allow people to bypass
their equipment and make their services a complete commodity service.

Remember how the old AT&T back in the 1900s fought to prevent people
from putting their own phones on their lines? They know that once you
can get around their ability to limit the equipment you can use, you
will find ways of getting around their imposed limitations. That would
pretty much make each phone carrier more or less alike, and they might
get stuck competing on price or (God forbid) service.


--
David Weintraub
qazwartgmail.com