GSM phone interchangeability - why different rollouts schedules from the GSM carriers?

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Nicolas - 31 Oct 2003 03:57 GMT

Question: if GSM phones are interchangeable between services (if they
are unlocked) why are Handspring / Cingular / T Mobile / ATT rolling
out the Treo 600 at differnt times, or even just saying that they may
not release it at all? Cingular put the Treo 600 up for sale for the
Manhattan market, Tmobile has done nothing, and ATT tells me to wait
until christmas. Is ATT doing something"special" for their Treos?
Shouldn't i be able to use an unlocked 600 from cingular with my ATT
service? Why should I wait for ATT to release theirs?
Will my phone not work unless ATT "decides" to support it?

thanks

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dafond - 01 Nov 2003 13:36 GMT

> Question: if GSM phones are interchangeable between services (if they
> are unlocked) why are Handspring / Cingular / T Mobile / ATT rolling
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
>
> thanks

Even if GSM is a global technology, each carrier adapt it... Normally, each
device that are sold commercially by a carrier must be approved by them.
Sometimes, the device manufacturer has to adapt the firmware/OS to work
correctly on the network. This certification step is kind of mandatory. If
the engineers find a problem before the commercial launch, it is corrected
up front. Imagine to cost of reflashing 10,000 devices sold within a week?

If you purchase a device from another network and unlock it, in the majority
of the times it works. When there is glitches then.... newsgroup are there
for that!!!. :)

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