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Carriers Object to Apple's Plans for Built-In iPhone SIM Even as GSMA Moves Forward
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I don't understand? That GSMA article is very general right now... they haven't even done an analysis on how the sim-less system will work.
One thing is for sure, if we have to rely on a carrier for activation (whether or not its a gsma standard that they must follow), there is no way to govern whether a carrier can start charging for these activations.
To switch between your phones on Verizon, you simply:
I can visualize a future global system where the same would work with any phone, with the additional optional step of first being able to switch to a different provider.
Carriers would have little choice but to join in, as otherwise users would select competitors who did show up in the choice list.
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There are plenty of reasons why Apple and other makers would like internal SIMs. It's one less water ingress point, one less physical failure area, one less design spot on the outside case, and less cost to build.
- shut down the old one,
- dial *228 on the new desired device,
- enter the phone number you're switching,
- validate with your account PIN.
I can visualize a future global system where the same would work with any phone, with the additional optional step of first being able to switch to a different provider.
Carriers would have little choice but to join in, as otherwise users would select competitors who did show up in the choice list.
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There are plenty of reasons why Apple and other makers would like internal SIMs. It's one less water ingress point, one less physical failure area, one less design spot on the outside case, and less cost to build.
We don't know how the provisioning systems will work. One thing is sure, the provisioning system will be under carrier control, not user control. The SIM slot is under direct user control.
You are opposed to something because it could have fees? You're seriously expecting to be charged every single time you switch carriers? SIM swapping isn't free, you still have to purchase a SIM card the first time.
That has massive consumer disadvantages in almost every country in the world that isn't the US.
Getting rid of SIM cards is a horrible, horrible idea. People are assuming there will be some incredibly utopian implementation of this - all available evidence is that this won't happen. Apple will use it to make sure people CAN'T switch in international SIMS when abroad and have to use AT&T roaming. Those saying that I could use an app, what if said app offers a limited amount of carriers because Apple has taken the hump with one? And don't be silly and say that wouldn't happen.
Consider the following scenario. I'm on a night out with a friend with my iPhone. They have a pay as you go phone. I drop my phone and it breaks. I need to call my wife for some kind of emergency. Sadly my friend has no credit. But at the moment, I can pull out my sim card (using the adaptor in my wallet if absolutely necessary) and put in in their phone, make the call, then swap back until I get a new phone. Excellent.
Excellent, and utterly impossible with this development.
Yeah! Its not like we have any way of moving (oh, what are they called again?... oh yeah) bits from one place to another.
I'll be down with the iPhone for a while if this happen. I'm assuming Apple is just investing in future technology, but if the deploy it before the rest of the market, I'll hold out with Android and WebOS.
I love and moveable SIM card.
I love and moveable SIM card.
If it all goes through Apple , they will subsidize the iphone.
This will eventually all happen as planned.
Change has a certain pattern:
Everybody against it
Some may consider it
Some try it
It works
Everybody gets on board
It was all their idea to begin with!
Apple has enough $$$ to pay for it's own Satellite signal to run phone calls.
Probably already in the works with the Carolina facility.
The phone companies will hit back with higher data plans, claiming there is not enough capacity (They are saying it now already) etc.
Once Verizon gets on board in phase 1 with it's own chip, then a combo chip. Then Apple will be a 3rd player.
Give it about two years .
Carriers can't block a method if that's the way all handsets are built. AT&T doesn't build handsets. Verizon doesn't build handsets. They are carriers, not phone manufacturers/designers. If you say you don't support it because the proposal doesn't give more control to consumers I would say you are dead wrong. If you say you don't support it because the carriers want to keep consumers from having more control and they will try and fight to keep consumers in the current state of less control, then I guess we can sort of agree on that but that's like saying you won't support something because you don't think it will win, not because it's not the best solution. I see this attitude all of the time in life and it is utterly repulsive to me. Everything worth having is worth fighting for on principle.
I guess what I'm saying is originally you were trying to position Apple as the "evil company" trying to take your control away and the carriers wanting to give you control. Now you are saying the exact opposite. So yes I guess we agree.
You purchase a sim card once. Most of the time I've purchased one its been a few dollars. How do we know the carrier won't charge every time we activate on the network? What about for switching from phone to phone on the same account/network? In the past cdma carriers charged activation fees when you wanted to change your phone, there's nothing preventing them from doing like that again.
I don't care whether the phone has a SIM or not, just so it is unlocked and I can switch between carriers when I travel outside of areas served by my home carrier. It seems to me that a one or two year binding contract with your home carrier that subsidizes the cost of the phone should be sufficient to ensure profit for carriers. Locking smart phones to one carrier stifles fair competition and infringes on antitrust laws that ensure free market growth. Why doesn't the FCC force carriers to unlock all smart phones sold in the US, so they can also be used with other carriers?
I'd much prefer that carriers compete purely on cost of bandwidth and get out of the subsidy racket completely.
I'd way rather pay $600 for the device and make the carriers be required to let me switch at will. That's the only way we'll get true competition.
Subsidies allow carriers to hide the obscenely high rates.
Just like cable, we need to turn them into the dumb pipes the should be.
I'd way rather pay $600 for the device and make the carriers be required to let me switch at will. That's the only way we'll get true competition.
Subsidies allow carriers to hide the obscenely high rates.
Just like cable, we need to turn them into the dumb pipes the should be.
No way, our carriers would never allow that! But you can change one VZW phone for another....
That was the point I was trying to get across.But there are people here making sound like they move their sim several times a day. Because their phone broke or their batterty died...
And by the same reasoning, there are people here talking as if they plan on changing operator several times a day.
You're again conveniently forgetting the phone swapping arguments. Not all SIM swapping is about changing carriers and changing the SIM in a phone. It might be about switching the phone you use your SIM in to.
The fact is, this gives control to Apple, it gives control to the carriers that oversee the provisioning systems, but it sure as heck takes a lot of control away from consumers for ... what benefits exactly ?
There are too many questions unanswered to blindly call this a good move. There are a lot of lost benefits however that warrant questioning this.
Oh good another 1 in million, they have things things call land lines, and pay phones. So, unless your middle of nowhere, I am sure you can find a phone just like we have done for years....
Something I don't appear to be able to do here in Sweden, they just offer a list of shops to go to (and no, we don't have Apple Stores in Sweden).
No doubt some here will claim this is the operator's fault as well.
Wow, and I have backward thinking ?
Landlines and pay phones uh ? What forward thinking right there!
Wow, and I have backward thinking ?
I just think it is crazy that people believe they will die if their cell phone breaks.
There's a lot of things that won't kill me, doesn't mean I have to accept being inconvenienced because of them.
Apple will be take a profit hit - how will Apple re-coup the subsizdy?
Carriers regain the subsidy via the contract fee every month.. how will Apple do this? Apple will want a slice of the revenue per month from the carrier?
Fairies and Unicorns. It seems to be what most poster use to justify the most boneheaded Apple moves these days.