Purchasing a smartphone is not an cheap matter. In most of the world, and notably Europe, mobile phone communication technologies (including frequencies) are standard and allow users to change carriers, and continue to use the devices upon which they've spent money and built their lives around. In some countries, SIM-locking devices to a carrier is not allowed.
The technology divide between GSM and CDMA in the US has been a barrier to easy migration between one carrier and another. Even if not CDMA, people cannot generally get 3G data from both of the national GSM-based carriers due to technology differences.
The carriers are in the process of rolling out their LTE services. In theory, a shared technology, but the two biggest carriers have declared that they will operate on different, incompatible sub-frequencies and lock their devices to their own frequencies. The result is same walled-garden that cloaks monopolistic practices that limit competition by erecting barriers to customer's easy of choice to move to a competitor.
It costs billions of dollars for each company to build out and maintain incompatible infrastructure technologies. Wasted overlap that might otherwise be spent on improved services for their customers, if the companies could collaborate on shared build-outs.
Should the US government (presumably the FCC) require that carriers allow cross compatibility of LTE between each other--a single, compatible standard?
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Should US carriers be forced to use compatible LTE frequencies?
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I actually think this is a great idea. Being able to migrate across carriers hassle free with only one phone would actually be awesome.
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As a European I find it mind boggling not being able to buy handsets freely and switch carriers and / or handsets by simply swapping the sim card.
Of course if you bought a subsidised handset you're still locked in a contract.
Of course if you bought a subsidised handset you're still locked in a contract.
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Something I've wanted forever. It would make this att tmobile thing not nearly as big a deal. True consumerfreedom based on quality of service, pricing and coverage.
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Absolutely! It works fairly well in Europe, to the benefit of customers. And the carriers there seem to be making boatloads of money, despite it.
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If we want a competitive market then yes, they should be compatible. We worry about a merger of T-Mobile and AT&T creating an anticompetitive market, but we should worry about phones not being compatible across carriers.
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Yes. Doing this will allow for greater market competition (like in much of Europe and Asia), while allowing for better coverage for users.
Having wholly incompatible networks in the past across the US was really inefficient.
Having wholly incompatible networks in the past across the US was really inefficient.
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