You sir are fighting a losing battle. Our forum members from Belgium are presenting valid information and you're presenting supposition. I would not continue trying to justify the block. This does seem so unlike Apple though.
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Apple May Be Forced to Unlock 4G on All Compatible Belgian iPhones
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You sir are fighting a losing battle. Our forum members from Belgium are presenting valid information and you're presenting supposition. I would not continue trying to justify the block. This does seem so unlike Apple though.
Hmmmm. Everything has a cost.
When I buy my 116i from BMW should the law force them to unlock the software so I can make it a 118i?
If you don't pay for it you don't get it. As long as they treat everybody how pays X amount the same they can do as they please.
Wrong analogy.
If you buy a BMW and it only drives with Petrol from Texaco, would be more correct. Or if it were a cheaper, subsidized by the carrier, phone. But nobody in Belgium buys a SIM-locked phone.
You can't buy an Simlock Free iPhone 5C and expect it to have the same internals as the 5S.
But if you buy a SIM-lock free phone for over 500(be it a 5C or 5S) it should be truly sim-lock free.
Furthermore(I'm from Belgium), Mobistar doesn't even have an official 4G/LTE network to begin with. It's in public Beta, so regular customers can ask to test it(if they have to most expensive subscription), but only if they live in a big city with LTE-antennas.
Proximus & Base on the other have public available LTE networks that work.
It's not only that we won't, but we can't buy SIM-locked phone \o/
'agree too that putting 799€ (32Gb) (so about 1094$, tax included (21%)) in a phone that's supposed to be free of operator constrains but actually is, is a bit painful. I'm on a MNVO from Base (Mobile Vikings), and yeah, we're waiting for it, or at least from a move from Apple. Everyone's paying the same to Apple, 'so we'd hope to have the same "freedom".
'still, sim-locking should be banned worldwide. crappy thing.
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I heard that Apple asks carriers to pay for a fee to 'test' 4G enabled iPhones on their network.
Because both Proximus and Base refuse to pay this fee, Apple is not allowing them to enable 4G. And this is a very typical Apple policy.
Because Proximus is primarily state owned...and this minister is known for certain practises... Well you see where this is going.
Because both Proximus and Base refuse to pay this fee, Apple is not allowing them to enable 4G. And this is a very typical Apple policy.
Because Proximus is primarily state owned...and this minister is known for certain practises... Well you see where this is going.
Proximus refuses to pay twice, they have already paid Apple to certify their network when the iPad with 4G came out.
Apple doesn't have to make a different phone for each carrier. Instead, they keep a central database of lock info.
When an iPhone is activated, Apple's server will tell it if it's locked to a carrier or not.
Apple obviously is willing to make deals for exclusivity and/or locking.
Last time I checked, about half of the world's carriers sell locked iPhones.
While that may be true in general, in Belgium this is not the case, and this is the country what this article is about, iPhones sold in Belgium are all factory UNlocked iPhones that can be used with any carrier over the whole world. Downside of this, is that the price to get an iPhone in Belgium is very high: 16GB iPhone 5S costs 700 EUR (~950 USD) and the 64GB iPhone 5S up to 900 EUR (1230 USD).
We expect an option to enable LTE here (or add the LTE settings), regardless of the fact that Proximus LTE network has already been certified (when the iPad was launched).
Except if that was accurate, then why they don't block Android phones from the same thing? Not to mention, the 4G iPads have no restrictions either. All the reports in Belgium is that Android devices have been working fun with the same 4G radio on all networks. There were no capacity issues that iPhone would cause.
This isn't a hardware lock, it's a specific software feature lock. Apple's intentionally locking the iPhone users from being able to use their 4G radio on their iPhones on other networks, even though the other carriers allow 4G and have no problems with the iPhone on their network.
A valid comparison would be that Apple made a deal with AT&T to provide the 4G connectivity while only allowing 3G or less on the same unlocked iPhones when users switch to T-Mobile, intentionally blocking those users from having 4G even if T-Mobile says the iPhones are compatible with their network.
And now a last APPLE move: enabling tethering for my iPhone 3G with iOS 4.2.1 on the Proximus network.
For now I am obliged, as a Proximus user, to limit myself to the slow iOS 4.1 to b e able to use tethering.
The article that triggered this action by the B gov
The article that triggered the Belgian government to take this action can be found at http://www.beltug.be/news/3490/Apple_iPhone_4G_Connectivity_in_Belgium/
As the author of the article mentioned above I can also attest to the fact that a lot of Belgian iPhone buyers are not aware of this rather important 4G connectivity limitation when buying their iPhone. I personally checked this in one of the major Apple reseller shops in Belgium (there is not one official Apple Store in Belgium - I wonder why) and none of the two sales guys in the shop were aware of this limitation. My guess is it would not be very different in other Belgian shops selling the iPhone. It might be different now however!
Another example of how you are treated as an Apple customer in Belgium: my MacBook Pro (not even one year old) developed a problem with the trackpad when hot (pointer starts moving, random clicks executed etc.). It took two weeks to get my MBP 'repaired' (the trackpad was not swapped since they could not find the fault) but since it developed a panel problem during the repair, the panel was swapped (no problem with that).
After using my MBP for two days it developed the same trackpad problem as before! And again I had to wait for two weeks to get it back after bringing it in for repair! Is this the service a professional user deserves for such an expensive machine covered by Apple Care?
Luckily I have kept my 1st gen Intel MacBook Pro as it allowed me to continue my work as independent tech writer but what if I had only one computer? BTW My 1st gen Intel MBP is now on its third panel (!) but it did allow me to replace the original HD with a nice SSD and I find its keyboard feel much better than the one on the new MBP.
Back to the original topic: I'm very curious how Apple is going to react to the action taken by the Belgian government. And yes: I also own an iPhone, and an iPod, and an iPad Air. So Apple - why are we treated like this?
The article that triggered the Belgian government to take this action can be found at http://www.beltug.be/news/3490/Apple_iPhone_4G_Connectivity_in_Belgium/
As the author of the article mentioned above I can also attest to the fact that a lot of Belgian iPhone buyers are not aware of this rather important 4G connectivity limitation when buying their iPhone. I personally checked this in one of the major Apple reseller shops in Belgium (there is not one official Apple Store in Belgium - I wonder why) and none of the two sales guys in the shop were aware of this limitation. My guess is it would not be very different in other Belgian shops selling the iPhone. It might be different now however!
Another example of how you are treated as an Apple customer in Belgium: my MacBook Pro (not even one year old) developed a problem with the trackpad when hot (pointer starts moving, random clicks executed etc.). It took two weeks to get my MBP 'repaired' (the trackpad was not swapped since they could not find the fault) but since it developed a panel problem during the repair, the panel was swapped (no problem with that).
After using my MBP for two days it developed the same trackpad problem as before! And again I had to wait for two weeks to get it back after bringing it in for repair! Is this the service a professional user deserves for such an expensive machine covered by Apple Care?
Luckily I have kept my 1st gen Intel MacBook Pro as it allowed me to continue my work as independent tech writer but what if I had only one computer? BTW My 1st gen Intel MBP is now on its third panel (!) but it did allow me to replace the original HD with a nice SSD and I find its keyboard feel much better than the one on the new MBP.
Back to the original topic: I'm very curious how Apple is going to react to the action taken by the Belgian government. And yes: I also own an iPhone, and an iPod, and an iPad Air. So Apple - why are we treated like this?
If it were in Apple's favor they would not have signed the exclusivity contract and it would not require an act by the government to stop Apple from disabling 4G on other carriers. Apple has all the power when it comes to the deals they strike with the carriers. To think Mobistar is the one dictating they disable 4G is laughable.
Update: 4G unlocked for all belgian providers
Update: 4G is unlocked on iPhone 5, 5c & 5s for all belgian providers.
Update: 4G is unlocked on iPhone 5, 5c & 5s for all belgian providers.