Support Our Site

You're viewing an article in iPO's historic archive vault. Here, we've preserved the comments and how the site looked along with the article. Use this link to view the article on our current site: AT&T Throws Open the Network Gates

News

AT&T Throws Open the Network Gates

Thursday, December 6th, 2007 at 10:15 AM - by

AT&T threw open the gates on Thursday by moving to allow any wireless phone, software application, or device from any manufacturer on its wireless network. The decision may well be in response to Google's entrance into the smart phone market with its open Android platform, according to USA TODAY.

AT&T Wireless CEO Ralph de la Vega commented "You can use any handset on our network you want. We don't prohibit it, or even police it."

Google's alliance with several companies, including AT&T rival Sprint, is moving towards a market where smart phones and their applications can more easily move from network to network thanks to the open architecture Android offers instead of the proprietary offerings most cell carriers offer today.

Since AT&T's open door goes only one way, iPhone users in the United States won't be able to take their combination iPod and smart phone to other carrier networks. They should be able, however, to put their iPhone SIM card in most any phone if they want.

[Thanks to TMO reader Tommo_UK for the heads up.]

5 comments from the community.

You can post your own below.

+ show options

Your current settings, click to change: Sort Oldest First, Show Guest Posts, Hide Community Stats

mahuti said:

member since 09 Jan 2003 with 377 posts, TMO Staff , send him a message or view his profile

Thu Dec 06, 2007 12:38 pm

And so it begins.

Quote this post ↓

Sir Harry Flashman said:

member since 08 Feb 2007 with 792 posts, unranked , send him a message or view his profile

Thu Dec 06, 2007 12:40 pm

I couldn't find it in the linked story, but I assume that this does not include CDMA phones.

Quote this post ↓

A guest said: (hide)

Thu Dec 06, 2007 2:12 pm

AT&T has pretty much *always* not policed or cared. It's not like they became suddenly open to whatever device would fit a SIM card -- they always have been. It's the nature of GSM. And yes, Sir Harry, it won't work with CDMA phones. -- Mike of Phone Different

Quote this post ↓

A guest said: (hide)

Thu Dec 06, 2007 5:37 pm

The only way these "announcements" will have any meaning is WHEN THEY STOP CRIPPLING/MODIFYING THE PHONES THEY SELL. For example, the latest RAZR sold in the US has four different feature sets, one for each of the major wireless carriers. Just saying you can use any phone you can find with their network is disingenuous when the vast majority of phones are sold by the wireless carrier.

Quote this post ↓