[NCLUG] Data Through Cellular Technology?

[John L. Bass]

	> GSM is used by Voicestream in the US ... phones feature smartcard security that is
	> portable between phones ... the phones are very expensive, and in order to be
	> competitive, the carriers released them into their respective markets "locked"
	> to their market. GSM is deployed world wide, on frequently incompatable frequencies,
	> but you can take your smart card, and use it in a rented phone in many markets.
	> 

	I don't think they're more expensive than any other cell phone. I have
	a Nokia Voicestream GSM phone that cost about $40 (with a Voicestream
	contract of course).

	I've updated phones once and it was pretty cool - just moved the thumbnail
	sized smart card to the new phone and that was it.

	The dual and tri-band phones that work in the US, Europe and Asia probably
	cost a bit more, but like you said, rental phones make more sense unless
	you're staying there for a long time.

		Quent

I had a lot of talks with Nokida, Voicestream, and other US GSM players a few
years ago ... one of the topics was why some phones where vendor locked and
others were not. The reason stated in each case was that the providers had to
eat the cost difference between the GSM phones and competitive TDMA/CDMA phones
so they could sell service at market prices. The only way they could do this
was with the vendor lock function ... so a VoiceStream phone could not be used
in say Southern Bell's system before the contract terms were up and they released
the phone to you. Part of the cost difference was various royalties on GSM
technologies that the other two systems didn't have at the time.

John