Why do Apple and ATT&T care if I go to France for three months and use a French SIM? I'm still paying AT&T $130 a month for two years. I'm sure that many iPhone users travel. Why not make the SIM interchangeable like every other phone? I'd be happy to pay AT&T two years in advance if it would make a difference. Use AT&T internationally for $2 a minute? Come on. I'll just use my unlocked Treo.
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Why do Apple and ATT&T care?
- Thread starter Fiumetevere
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Because Apple and AT&T will make 1.49 a min and 20.00 per meg in addition to your normal monthly charges if you can't use a local sim card in France.
Wait, who is ATT&T and why do they care about your iPhone?
American Telephone, Telegraph and Touchscreen
by any chance would it be possible to get a american iphone and get it unlocked in france may never know
may never know
the reason they give a damn is controled service and the boom in touch screen phones. Not only do they want to have the best touch screen they want to be the only us carrier of the iPhone.
Secondly you should know by now that apple is very controlling of its products. Inorder to provide uniform support they want everyone who owns one to be in a similar situation. This saves time and money training tech agents todeal
with variables. Allso this allows for a more efective sdk deployment. I remember a time when mac program compatibilty specified an OS and a product line. Never has it been that easy on windows computers. Often you need alot more data than the average user would know.
Basically this is just part of apples need to know what is going on.
Secondly you should know by now that apple is very controlling of its products. Inorder to provide uniform support they want everyone who owns one to be in a similar situation. This saves time and money training tech agents todeal
with variables. Allso this allows for a more efective sdk deployment. I remember a time when mac program compatibilty specified an OS and a product line. Never has it been that easy on windows computers. Often you need alot more data than the average user would know.
Basically this is just part of apples need to know what is going on.
I think your post perfectly explains why.
You have an unlocked Treo and you still bought an iPhone.
Apple and At&t are trying to rope in the wild-running mobile phone world.
There is essentially no control whatsoever. Some of you I'm sure think thats great.
The problem is when there's no control, theres no money to be made. When theres no money to be made, there are no "new iphones" on the market.
There is essentially no control whatsoever. Some of you I'm sure think thats great.
The problem is when there's no control, theres no money to be made. When theres no money to be made, there are no "new iphones" on the market.
I don't think that AT&T or Apple really cares whose service you use in France. The driver isn't that they are getting fees for you traveling in France. I don't think that they make huge amounts of money off that compared with their interface charges. The real reason is closer to home - in order to put a French SIM into your iPhone, it has to be unlocked. If you unlock the iPhone to use a French SIM, it can also use a domestic US competitor's SIM, thus defeating the purpose of the exclusive arrangement Apple & AT&T have.
What would be interesting is if Apple, AT&T, O2, Orange, etc. got together and gave you options to use the official Apple carrier in each country with local SIM chips. Not gonna happen, but it would protect everyone's interests. AT&T is selling SIM-only service now - they could make an iPhone version. O2 could make an iPhone version as well. The phone would still be "locked" - just locked to the list of Apple exclusive partners. That would also open up a PAYG service for the iPhone that is currently not very robust.
I think most carriers charge ridiculous amounts for international calls on your local SIM. When I was in New Zealand, I just bought a POS phone and a prepaid NZ Vodafone SIM and went on my merry way. Or did you think that at&t should let you unlock the iPhone?