Like we needed yet another reason why network lock in is a bad idea.
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070117/NEWS02/301170001/1007
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iPhone not to be avaliable in Vermont?
- Thread starter vniow
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Like we needed yet another reason why network lock in is a bad idea.
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070117/NEWS02/301170001/1007
It's just Vermont. I mean, what have they done for me lately?
Other than ice cream and syrup
No really, what have they done?
That's what I thought
Other than ice cream and syrup
No really, what have they done?
That's what I thought
I think the Ice Cream alone deserves some kind special treatment...
I don't think the iPhone will stay locked for very long. Apple doesn't like being constrained by any one company (but they don't care about doing that themselves
)And half of Midwest?
Oddly, this article adds a whole bunch of other underpopulated states, but also some relatively populous ones like Colorado and Minnesota:
Boston.com article
Whassup with that?
Oddly, this article adds a whole bunch of other underpopulated states, but also some relatively populous ones like Colorado and Minnesota:
Boston.com article
Whassup with that?
I was going to say how stupid that sounds, but I know there have been lawsuits for muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch stupider things, so it wouldn't surprise me.
So, is there any other GSM coverage in Vermont (plus the other areas the news article mentions)? Cause if not... unlocking wouldn't matter much...
I don't think T-mobile is available in Vermont either. What service to people use up there, is it all Verizon and Sprint?
Woohoo 500th post!
Woohoo 500th post!
Just about. And even that is not much.
If you look at coverage maps of the nation you will see that most of the service is near metro areas.
Keep in mind that large portions of states is not unreasonable. For example, most of Utah lives along the I-15 corridor - so it isn't worth expanding coverage to the vast majority of the state.
And yes, a class action suit would never get beyond the initial filing.
Well I'm going to take Apple to the European Court of Human Rights for denying me the iPhone until Q4.
Wow! A thread about Vermont!
Let me fill all you foreigners in with the ways of VT.
I went through an incredibly painful process attempting to get a VT number with cingular. Unfortunately it ended up being impossible. HOWEVER, there is GSM service in Vermont... Covers almost all of Burlington, in fact. And all other places I've been in the state. To get a cingular plan, you must have a billing address in one of their covered areas... Florida, New York, whatever. Luckily as I was moving out to Washington for school, I was able to set that up. Moral of the story is that there IS GSM coverage in VT, and you can use a Cingular plan as long as your billing address is outside the state.
...But then again, if you use a cingular phone on partner towers for more than 50% of your minutes, they boot you. Just happened to me this month for trying to use my phone in Montana and never crossing out of a roaming area. So there really is no solid solution for us good ol' Vermonters.
Let me fill all you foreigners in with the ways of VT.
I went through an incredibly painful process attempting to get a VT number with cingular. Unfortunately it ended up being impossible. HOWEVER, there is GSM service in Vermont... Covers almost all of Burlington, in fact. And all other places I've been in the state. To get a cingular plan, you must have a billing address in one of their covered areas... Florida, New York, whatever. Luckily as I was moving out to Washington for school, I was able to set that up. Moral of the story is that there IS GSM coverage in VT, and you can use a Cingular plan as long as your billing address is outside the state.
...But then again, if you use a cingular phone on partner towers for more than 50% of your minutes, they boot you. Just happened to me this month for trying to use my phone in Montana and never crossing out of a roaming area. So there really is no solid solution for us good ol' Vermonters.
yeah as pdpfilms said, there is gsm coverage here, Unicel just updated their network to gsm, however it is not the most popular network.
Verizon seems to be the biggest but i hear lots of complaints cuz you can't use V Cast in most places, so if you get a super sweet mp3 phone.....you can't download music, fun eh? Sprint is a little better(I have it), you can download music and everything, but it is not even close to being fast.
Things are slowly improving and i rarely go anywhere that doesn't have some sort of service whether native or roaming, not that i am saying there aren't any dead zones, but they are slowly dissapearing.
For now i am content with my sprint, service is great in my area and i don't use the internet on my phone. phone internet=muchoexpensive for a student
I think the iphone looks sweet, but i don't expect it to be here in vermont any time soon
Verizon seems to be the biggest but i hear lots of complaints cuz you can't use V Cast in most places, so if you get a super sweet mp3 phone.....you can't download music, fun eh? Sprint is a little better(I have it), you can download music and everything, but it is not even close to being fast.
Things are slowly improving and i rarely go anywhere that doesn't have some sort of service whether native or roaming, not that i am saying there aren't any dead zones, but they are slowly dissapearing.
For now i am content with my sprint, service is great in my area and i don't use the internet on my phone. phone internet=muchoexpensive for a student
I think the iphone looks sweet, but i don't expect it to be here in vermont any time soon
Hah yeah i visited some deaf mates in Vermont a few years ago. Beautiful place, never realised there are still some hippy corners of the USA left.
They lived in the countryside outside Burlington. The local beer, "Black Hat" or something was lovely, little bit like Guinness. Little bit fond of blaming bad things (power cuts etc) on Ohio tho
They lived in the countryside outside Burlington. The local beer, "Black Hat" or something was lovely, little bit like Guinness. Little bit fond of blaming bad things (power cuts etc) on Ohio tho
According to Cingular:
http://www.cingular.com/coverageviewer/
Not sure how accurate this is in practice though. If you zoom in to VT it shows most of the state having either "Partner" status or no coverage at all. Hmmm.
http://www.cingular.com/coverageviewer/
Not sure how accurate this is in practice though. If you zoom in to VT it shows most of the state having either "Partner" status or no coverage at all. Hmmm.
Hi
It's not bad coverage here but you can't completely blame Cingular since it is a lot of farmland. I don't have that many areas where I've traveled statewide with no service. There is only one fluke spot down the highway where I get dropped calls. Around a particular overpass where you're in a bit of a low area. 1 - 2 bars and full bars right outside of it. Any carrier has noticeably less signal in that small area. It's probably a 100 yard stretch or so. I'm in the Saint Cloud area and so at the edge of the coverage but T-Mobile provides towers in a lot of areas more up north. The midwest is mainly CDMA yet and therefore Verizon. It was originally made up of a bunch of little carriers and than Verizon bought all of them. For example...Not long before it was purchased, Cellular 2000 of Saint Cloud put a lot of money / effort into making great state wide coverage and Cellular One had the norther section. Verizon added all of that coverage to their network with little effort...Good business sense.
Cingular didn't have any coverage in MN or WI or ... until they purchased AT&T Wireless and than converted ATTW TDMA towers to GSM.
It's not bad coverage here but you can't completely blame Cingular since it is a lot of farmland. I don't have that many areas where I've traveled statewide with no service. There is only one fluke spot down the highway where I get dropped calls. Around a particular overpass where you're in a bit of a low area. 1 - 2 bars and full bars right outside of it. Any carrier has noticeably less signal in that small area. It's probably a 100 yard stretch or so. I'm in the Saint Cloud area and so at the edge of the coverage but T-Mobile provides towers in a lot of areas more up north. The midwest is mainly CDMA yet and therefore Verizon. It was originally made up of a bunch of little carriers and than Verizon bought all of them. For example...Not long before it was purchased, Cellular 2000 of Saint Cloud put a lot of money / effort into making great state wide coverage and Cellular One had the norther section. Verizon added all of that coverage to their network with little effort...Good business sense.
Cingular didn't have any coverage in MN or WI or ... until they purchased AT&T Wireless and than converted ATTW TDMA towers to GSM.
File suit against who? Apple, for limiting their phone to Cingular? Cingular, for not being everywhere? Neither of those is going to get very far.
They lived in the countryside outside Burlington. The local beer, "Black Hat" or something was lovely, little bit like Guinness. Little bit fond of blaming bad things (power cuts etc) on Ohio tho
Magic Hat? Actually, Burlington was recently rated the #1 US brewing town, can't remember by whom...
Magic Hat makes some good stuff. Someone once told me you can take a case or sixer of something if you take a tour...
And really, this is no different than any other phone from any other manufacturer being available on only one carrier. I doubt anyone sued over not being able to get a RAZR when they first came out in the U.S.
And really, this is no different than any other phone from any other manufacturer being available on only one carrier. I doubt anyone sued over not being able to get a RAZR when they first came out in the U.S.
While cows are notoriously litigious, as a practical matter they probably have little interest in the iPhone, which requires fingers.
Doubtless there will be someone out there silly enough to try, but this kind of thing is allowed. Exclusive handset deals aren't at all unusual.