Why not All carriers on one chip

[FordGT90Concept]

Verizon is ~15 years old, so is the currently used CDMA2000.
CDMA protocol itself was introduced in 90s.

Verizon is formerly Bell Atlantic Corporation which has been around since 1989. They rebranded in 2000. CDMA2000 is the protocol that's competitive with GSM.

No offense, but 2 hours ago you seemed to think that CDMA is a US exclusive system.

USA is the only country with no intent to get rid of CDMA.

You're writing from a country proud for its free market and yet it's so hard to change the mobile carrier. :-D

If it's GSM to GSM or CDMA to CDMA, all it takes is giving them the IMEI, them sending you a new SIM card, and pay for at least the first month of phone service (including activation fee). Not difficult to change carriers.

BTW: do you at least get to keep the same number?

If you want the same number, yes, they can transfer that.

 

[notb]

There are such phones which allow dual-sim. It's certainly not an iPhone.

iPhone's are famously made with a US client in mind (well - Californians - to be precise). It works for the rest of the world, because we're used to adopting american way of living.
I'm pretty sure every other manufacturer makes a dual-sim phone (certainly the larger brands do).

You'll have to look towards phones that are not locked and there are plenty of them - Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo, Oppo, Xiaomi, OnePlus, Meizu, Elephone...

What do you mean by "not locked"? If you buy a phone from a carrier, it'll certainly have a sim lock. If you buy it in a store, it will be unlocked.
Unlocking phones is fairly easy and fully legal.

Phones are one thing where China, considering quality and performance, excels.

They're just cheap with good performance. They save money on qualitative things that aren't obvious.

 

[Vya Domus]

When it comes to LTE I would be more concerned about the useless and relentless push for faster radios inside phones that drive the price higher when in most places we barely even get close to saturating the 100mbps LTE standard.

My S8+ supposedly can do 1Gbps, I will probably change 2-3 more phones till I will see anything close to that from carriers. Thanks for nothing.

 

[notb]

Verizon is formerly Bell Atlantic Corporation which has been around since 1989. They rebranded in 2000. CDMA2000 is the protocol that's competitive with GSM.

So by "network deployed decades ago" you've precisely meant 2 decades. Nice.
And could the original CDMA transmitters be reprogrammed for CDMA2000?

USA is the only country with no intent to get rid of CDMA.

As mentioned before: I believe China plans to keep it as well (as a niche solution, but still).

But why keep CDMA at all? Isn't it just a irritating quirk for the customers? Wouldn't you want to have a unified protocol on which every phone works? And no roaming problems when travelling?

If it's GSM to GSM or CDMA to CDMA, all it takes is giving them the IMEI, them sending you a new SIM card, and pay for at least the first month of phone service (including activation fee). Not difficult to change carriers.
If you want the same number, yes, they can transfer that.

Yeah, I've found these instruction from Sprint: :-D
https://www.sprint.com/en/support/s...ing/bring-your-existing-number-to-sprint.html

"You should have the following on hand when processing your transfer request:

• Name and address on old service provider account
• Account number from your old service provider
• Account password from your old service provider (if applicable)"

They want you to give login information to your current provider? Seriously? Is that even legal?
So there is no systematic solution? They just login as you and manually close the plan?

And why do they want the address of your carrier?! O-M-G

 

[FordGT90Concept]

So by "network deployed decades ago" you've precisely meant 2 decades. Nice.
And could the original CDMA transmitters be reprogrammed for CDMA2000?

No, 1990. They updated their network from CDMA to CDMA2000. Transmitter cost doesn't matter, it's maintaining service for customers with CDMA phones without having to run parallel networks. It was cheaper to upgrade CDMA than to switch to GSM.

But why keep CDMA at all? Isn't it just a irritating quirk for the customers? Wouldn't you want to have a unified protocol on which every phone works? And no roaming problems when travelling?

All carriers have roaming problems in the USA. It's a huge country with a lot of holes, often created by geography and population density.

 

[notb]

When it comes to LTE I would be more concerned about the useless and relentless push for faster radios inside phones that drive the price higher when in most places we barely even get close to saturating the 100mbps LTE standard.

Seriously? You don't saturate 100 Mbps in 2018?
My cable connection at home is 240 Mbps and I'm currently switching to double that. Websites and services are getting larger and larger, while our acceptation of lags and long downloads is shrinking rapidly.

My S8+ supposedly can do 1Gbps, I will probably change 2-3 more phones till I will see anything close to that from carriers. Thanks for nothing.

Gigabit LTE is already here. 5G is on its way.
And aren't you a big advocate of future proof hardware? Ryzen and stuff? :-D

 

[yotano211]

That's a carrier restriction enforced by the company itself, and it exists everywhere. Not a regional restriction.
In regards to GSM fallback, that's true but it slowly works its way up to full coverage. At least in Ukraine most major players have almost finished upgrading old Nokia cell towers to new Huawei equipment.
It's already installed, but only partially deployed 'cause benchmarking, QA, and analysis isn't complete yet (my new employer takes care of that part)


And isn't it the same in US? Getting great coverage in Colorado Rockies, or Florida farmtowns? Any 4G in Nebraska?
I'm not talking about those pretty maps on Verizon and AT&T websites, I'm talking actual connectivity and benchmarked speeds.

Dont expect to get any 4g service on the i40 highway in Arizona.

 

[R-T-B]

If this list is correct, USA, China and South Korea are the last significant CDMA operators.

Verizon is phasing out CDMA already, turning it off in 2020. They are the only user stateside honestly.

There is 0% chance of CDMA going away in the USA in the next 10 years.

Uh, no. Verizon even recently stopped activating none-LTE devices this June. CDMA stateside is dead.

BTW: do you at least get to keep the same number?

Yes, but speaking from experience, it can be a major PITA.

Dont expect to get any 4g service on the i40 highway in Arizona.

I'd be expecting it soon or you will literally have nothing.

 

[delshay]

You can buy a dual sim card & fit it to most phones. I still have couple of these adaptors lying around somewhere.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Verizon is phasing out CDMA already, turning it off in 2020. They are the only user stateside honestly.

Uh, no. Verizon even recently stopped activating none-LTE devices this June. CDMA stateside is dead.

Haven't really researched it in years. It shows.

 

[v12dock]

Big brother Verizon is so horrible... but at least I have service everywhere

 

[R-T-B]

Haven't really researched it in years. It shows.

Hey ford, a bit OT but been meaning to say: we disagree a lot but given both of us are willing to admit when are wrong (well, at least blatantly so ), I have a lot of respect for our discussions.

Thanks for taking the higher road when possible.

 

[Komshija]

iPhone's are famously made with a US client in mind (well - Californians - to be precise). It works for the rest of the world, because we're used to adopting american way of living.

iPhones are made to sell a brand name and apple logo so that people could spent their last coin to show others that they are someone who they are not - that's the case with probably 95% of iPhone users.
Completely disregard the fact that an iphone is the best privacy invader on the market and also the most expensive phone with average built quality which gives terrible value for the money. It has only one good thing considering its OS - its better optimized than android, so it doesn't need a 2,5+ GHz 8-core CPU and 6 GB RAM to run fluently.

Every culture has some good things, but every person who fully or completely assimilates other "culture" (note: culture vs "culture") trying to be somebody that they are not and who fights for the implanted ideals, which are usually counterproductive for them and/or their country, is an brainwashed idiot.

What do you mean by "not locked"? If you buy a phone from a carrier, it'll certainly have a sim lock. If you buy it in a store, it will be unlocked.
Unlocking phones is fairly easy and fully legal.

That depends on regulations of a certain country, but yes, unlocking can be done at pretty much every small phone store/shop for a small fee of approx. 10-20€ or by yourself.

They're just cheap with good performance. They save money on qualitative things that aren't obvious.

I wouldn't say it that way. Thier top-end and even high-end models are well made phones with very good price-to-value ratio and a lot better privacy protections. Apple products are so expensive because of a brand name and logo, meaning that Apple has enormous profit margin which topples every other smartphone manufacturer on the planet.

This is how the things approximately work:
* Top-end Chinese smartphone -> development & production costs: 150 €, marketing 50 €, shipping & handling: 20 €, total: 220 €, end-price for the consumer: 400 € profit margin: 180 €
* Top-end Korean smartphone -> development & production costs: 170 €, marketing 150 €, shipping & handling: 20 €, total: 340 €, end-price for the consumer: 850 €, profit margin: 410 €
* iPhone -> development & production costs: 170 €, marketing 300 €, shipping & handling: 20 €, total: 490 €, end-price for the consumer: 1200 €, profit margin: 710 €