I'm sure if you ask the wireless carriers about why they have locked phones. They will give you answers like.
We lock our phone to our networks to retain customers. We don't make money on the hand sets. We have three services we offer on our phones. Voice, Text Messages (SMS) and Data. All three services are not compatible on other networks. We don't like people screwing around with the settings. This is one of many ways we provide better customer experience. If we let people monkey around with phone settings and load their own firmware updates. We would not have people buying new phones every 1.2 to 2 years. I'm sure I'm missing one or two.. The funny thing is Text messages and data IMHO is the same thing. The phone carriers will not admit to this. The really funny thing is because all new cell phone (since 2000 or 2002) they phones and network are all digital. So all the calls are data because they are digital. Cell phone in my mind are more like VoIP phone. They just offer different classes of service. Not unlike a Wifi VoIP phone that has a Chat client software (AIM, MSN, Yahoo or XMPP.) and talks SIP,SCCP, IAX and IAX2 to a PBX ( Think Asterisk and Cisco Unified Communications Manager (formerly Cisco Unified CallManager). ) or a VoIP service provider like Project Gizmo or Skype. -Miller On 10/9/07, Ben Barrett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Some carriers might still not notice if you use modified firmware on your > phone device, > or an older version of the device's firmware, to enable DUN yourself... > I know this was possible with the Treo 6xx series under Cingular at one > point in time, > but it seems they sorta caught on since it destroyed their pricing model. > That is, for a while (maybe still?) you could use an older (or new, modded) > firmware that did not differentiate between the network access; > the current firmware allows them to separate network access from the device > itself, and network packets fwded on for another device. > > Network access may also be possible though add-on programs -- if your device > supports Java, then it should be entirely possible, albeit probably > violating the fine print of your service agreement, to simple use a proxy, > either of your own design, ported, etc. Most of the readership of this list > does not need linux to be "supported", as we work in a world of mostly-open > standards. It is always nice to see some acknowledgement of our rather > large community though!! :) > > ciao, > > ben > > > > On 10/9/07, Michael Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > I found this link on www.freshmeat.net ( Get your mind out of the > > gutter it's for open software.) and figured I would share. > > > > http://www.vodafonebetavine.net/web/linux_drivers > > > > It's nice to see another cell phone carrier ( Vodafone ) understand > > people don't live in a one or two operating system world. The two > > operating systems I speak of are Windows and OS X. > > > > Now I did say other cell phone carrier. Sprint says they support > > Linux on their USB Ovation U727 modem. > > > > > http://www.linuxelectrons.com/news/mobile/12405/sprint-offers-usb-mobile-broadband-modem-linux-support > > > > <rant> > > I hope that Verizon get the idea. I know you can use a cable > > connected to your phone via USB but that can be a pain. Another > > option is Bluetooth but that is a pain if your carrier charges you > > extra to turn on Bluetooth DUN on your phone. > > > > Sorry for the rant.. > > > > </rant> > > > > -Miller > > _______________________________________________ > > EUGLUG mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://www.euglug.org/mailman/listinfo/euglug > > > > > _______________________________________________ > EUGLUG mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.euglug.org/mailman/listinfo/euglug > > _______________________________________________ EUGLUG mailing list [email protected] http://www.euglug.org/mailman/listinfo/euglug
