> Cell phones need to be approved by the carrier to even run on the network
That's a U.S. of A. thing.
Re:The Nokia N900: the future that wasn't
by tetris11 on Saturday March 15, 2025 @05:54PM
(#43375393)
I'm very surprised to hear this. What gain do carriers have in locking themselves down to specific vendors? I'm a paying customer and my device can connect to your network, why would you refuse me service?
Re:The Nokia N900: the future that wasn't
by stonogo on Saturday March 15, 2025 @07:19PM
(#43375819)
Carriers use emergency services regulations to assert that unapproved devices should not be permitted to place or receive calls. The carriers claim they'd be liable if someone should dial 911 and the device doesn't function well enough for first responders to respond, and the only solution they proffer is device validation testing.
There's all sorts of crazy tablets, laptops, and handheld computers at any given time, but even large conglomerates struggle to keep their phones available through cellular carriers.
Meanwhile, companies that are very successful with stagnant and feature-limited cellphone designs have to put much more effort into computers and tablets to get a reasonably market share. Apple kept lightning ports on their cellphones long after their tablets supported USB-C, despite effectively being the same hardware, sans cellular modem.