Austad, Jay wrote:
> would know....  I read awhile back that ATT found a way to lock their SIM's
> so they will only work in an ATT locked GSM phone, not in an unlocked phone.
> Is this true?  I know ATT locks their phones, but their SIM's too?

I wonder if they will even give you a SIM or support you without buying 
one of the phones.  I know Rogers in canada wont let you just buy a 
prepaid SIM card.

Fido, however, who is microcell who t-mobile/voicestream has a 40% share 
in does do prepaid SIM cards.  They also do roaming for voicestream 
customers at pretty crazy rates (about ~$.60/min/USD for roaming and 
calling back to the USA total.).  The prepaid cards are at least half 
the cost of that, afaik.

> I want to get an Ericcson t68i, but ATT doesn't provide it, so I'll have to
> buy an unlocked one somewhere.  But if ATT's SIM doesn't work in an unlocked
> phone, I guess I'm stuck with the t68 (not the i).  

Voicestream unlocks any phone (simunlock at voicestream.net) if youve 
been on a contract with them for over 3 months.

> Also, ATT's GPRS data pricing is outrageous.  7.99 for 1MB, and 12.99 for
> 2MB.  At GPRS speeds, you could easily go over your limit in just 10
Richochet is coming back.  For massive data at ~$50/mo I would rather 
wait for that.  GPRS is slower than richochet, too. (I'm probally 
spelling richochet incorrectly, too)

/me notes he pays $3.99 on voicestream and uses the 'family plan' with 
two phones (total cost i think is like 60 or 70) and gets:
one phone with 50 sms
my phone with around 600sms messages for free and 1mb gprs
shared 800 weekday minutes
unlimited weekends
if you can get signal and accepted registration in the US, you incur no 
extra costs.

> obviously cell providers here are "donating" big money to not have these
> laws pass.  Number portability would increase competition and benefit the
> consumer since the #1 reason people don't switch providers is because they
> don't want to change their number.

I don't want to be charged another #*(@##@!!! $3 to $6 over name 
portability like we do for normal phones now.  I think its like 2-3$ on 
a land line these days.  Plus, I wouldn't want to trust the reliability 
of a ported number.  I would like to see it available for a user fee 
that only affects people who require ported numbers.

Voicestream has a larger network and most likely more global roaming 
deals than at&t since they are really t-mobile.  I'm just waiting for 
the Danger Hiptop to finally come out.  T-Mobile rebranding of 
voicestream should be verrrrry soon now...

-- 
Scott Dier <dieman at ringworld.org> http://www.ringworld.org/