Slashdot Mirror
How Great Cheap Phones Never Get to the U.S.
prostoalex writes "Gary Krakow from MSNBC is impressed with Motorola's C116 phone only to find out that that the phone is not available in the US. The reason? 'A very, very basic GSM handset that handles incoming and outgoing calls as well as SMS messages, the C116 is sold all over the world -- except for the United States. It's not sold here because it's too cheap!' The phone is targeted for emerging markets, where people don't like to tie themselves into monthly contracts, and with little value proposition presents little interest to US wireless operators."
The phone is targeted for emerging markets, where people don't like to tie themselves into monthly contracts,
Am I wrong, or do they mean yearly contracts?
94% of Repubs and 21% of Dems voted to renew the Patriot Act
“IMAGINE a magical device that could boost entrepreneurship and economic activity, provide an alternative to bad roads and unreliable postal services, widen farmers’ access to markets, and allow swift and secure transfers of money. Now stop imagining: the device in question is the mobile phone.”
“It is increasingly clear that, when it comes to bridging the ‘digital divide’ between rich and poor, the mobile phone, not the personal computer, has the most potential.”
--
Mobile phones and development
Calling an end to poverty
Jul 7th 2005
From The Economist print edition
Mobile-phone firms have found a profitable way to help the poor help themselves
[Image] (Still Pictures)
ALL eyes are on what governments can do to end poverty, with aid, debt relief and trade top of the agenda at this week’s G8 summit. But what about the role that business can play--and, in particular, technology firms? It is increasingly clear that, when it comes to bridging the “digital divide” between rich and poor, the mobile phone, not the personal computer, has the most potential. “Emerging markets will be wireless-centric, not PC-centric,” says C. K. Prahalad, a management scholar and author of “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid”, a book that highlights the collective purchasing power of the world’s 4 billion poorest people and urges firms to try to profit from it.
Mobile phones have become indispensable in the rich world. But they are even more useful in the developing world, where the availability of other forms of communication--roads, postal systems or fixed-line phones--is often limited. Phones let fishermen and farmers check prices in different markets before selling produce, make it easier for people to find work, allow quick and easy transfers of funds and boost entrepreneurship. Phones can be shared by a village. Pre-paid calling plans reduce the need for a bank account or credit check. A recent study by London Business School found that, in a typical developing country, a rise of ten mobile phones per 100 people boosts GDP growth by 0.6 percentage points. Mobile phones are, in short, a classic example of technology that helps people help themselves.
But despite rapid subscriber growth in much of the developing world, only a small proportion of people--around 5% in both India and sub-Saharan Africa--have their own mobile phones. Why? The price of handsets is the “biggest obstacle” to broader adoption, says Alan Knott-Craig, boss of Vodacom, which runs networks in five African countries. Azmi Mikati of Investcom, which runs networks in Africa and the Middle East, estimates that the number of users would double in those markets if the cheapest handset cost $30 instead of $60.
Ringing the changes
Handset-makers earn most of their profits from fancy phones sold to consumers in rich countries, where on average a handset costs around $200 (before operator subsidies). But as markets have become saturated in the rich world, manufacturers have started to realise that their future growth depends on catering to the needs of developing nations. As a result, they have been working with operators to develop new extremely cheap handsets and to boost adoption in the poor world.
Several operators from developing countries teamed up earlier this year under the auspices of the GSM Association, which promotes the use of GSM, the world’s dominant mobile-phone standard. They invited the handset-makers to bid for a contract to supply up to 6m handsets for less than $40 each. The contract was won by Motorola. Delivery of handsets began in April. The low cost is not due to cross-subsidy from high-margin handsets or “corporate social responsibility” funding, insists David Taylor of Motorol
would like to see phones unlinked from the service providers
Well, you *can* buy your own phone and have a phone service plan seperately-- it's just that the plan providers provide a free or cheap phone if you sign up for a 1-year or 2-year contract. The month-to-month plans don't seem like a good deal.
But truthfully, it's hard to compare each plan side by side, because each plan comes with dozens of little exceptions and little add-on charges. Some websites, like Letstalk.com seem to leave out all sorts of important information-- sometimes I wonder if Letstalk is owned by the Cell Phone providers themselves.
I'm interested in how people get one of those phones from Amazon with 100% rebates, WITHOUT signing up for any sort of phone plan.
94% of Repubs and 21% of Dems voted to renew the Patriot Act
from the end... "The color model, the C155, is available in the United States, sold by the prepaid wireless company TracFone online and through retail outlets such as Wal-Mart. For $29.98, you get the phone and the right to buy pay-as-you-go phone services. Telefonica MoviStar sells the C116 phone in Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries."
me jumping with kites I make...
I use a Palm Tungsten T PDA and wanted a basic bluetooth GSM phone that I could use to connect the Palm to the Internet. The best I found -- actually, the only basic phone I found -- was the Nokia 6310i. Basic black and white screen, basic keyboard, somewhat large compared to other phones, but IT WORKS. My 6310i is now over 3 years old and I've seen nothing on the Canadian market that looks like it. I have a great Palm PDA - why would I want a $500 colour phone discounted to $99 with a 3 year contract?
This is absolutely true in India and it mainly has to do with the de-coupling of the service providers and the phone/unit providers.
i have used letstalk in the past and felt that i was able to locate all of the relevant information for the plans. it was easy to compare plans as well. terms of service, extra charges, etc is right there in the site. i havent had any surprises anywhere along the line by using them. in fact, i recommend their service. nothing like getting a phone and paid 100$ or so to sign the same contract you would have to if you went into a store in a mall.
always mosh clockwise
...where the article mentions that Motorola manufactures that model of phone with the US frequencies, and the author got one and uses it daily. Hmm.
The phone is targeted for emerging markets, where people don't like to tie themselves into monthly contracts, and with little value proposition presents little interest to US wireless operators.
The wireless operators won't tell you this - for obvious reasons - but you're absolutely NOT required to purchase your phone from them. The bottom line is that you can aquire an unlocked, factory-direct phone from places like eXpansys. After that, simply call the carrier to do an ESN swap or in the case of GSM place the SIM in the new phone.
The trick, of course, is knowing the technology your carrier supports. I don't expect that to be an issue for this crowd.
That was actually the next paragraph.
One word, virginmobile. They seem to be the least evil of all cell phone companies... especially if you hardly use your phone (the standard plan will suck you dry if you do talk alot). I love it, I don't need to use my minutes every month, they never expire (assuming i buy $15 of airtime every 3 months, which is automatically billed anyway).
Disclaimer: I don't work for or have any affiliation with virgin mobile, just a happy customer.
The goal of computer science is to build something that will last at least until we've finished building it.
I have a Virgin phone with a pay as you go plan that in theory could be as low as $15 every three months - naturally it's not quite that low but probably only $30 every three months.
All I would ask for in addition to that plan is a Bluetooth phone and some kind of data plan. Heck, it could cost ten cents a minute for data access and that would be totally fine, just enough to fetch and send email while out and about.
I also do not need color screen or a camera. I just what a phone to bring me data connectivity... I may look into getting the phone you mentioned even though I'd have to pay a lot more for a plan to support it.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I never got this from Slashdot. Did you ever consider that basic cellular phones don't go away when the user is done with them?
Seriously, there are thousands of decent GSM phones that you can get on eBay. The Nokia 3590 is one of my favorites - great RF, GSM 850/1900 (covers the entire US, Canada, and Mexico), good battery life, and a simple UI.
Guess what? The Nokia 3590 goes for $25 on eBay.
If you want a small clamshell, the Ericsson T39 goes for around $50 on eBay. There's also the Moto v66 (around $40 on eBay) and hundreds of other models.
Do a little research on Phonescoop and buy yourself the phone that you want. There are 1.5 BILLION GSM subscribers in the world, which means that the secondary market is absolutely huge. Finding a good mobile phone is not a challenge.
I work for Cingular, and we DON'T give out unlock codes, ever, no matter who the customer is or what they say. I doubt if any US wireless provider does. If you can figure out how to unlock it yourself, then great, but there is simply no reason for a wireless provider to help you switch to another network.
Disclaimer: IANAL. This post is, however, legal advice, and creates an attorney-client relationship.
Err, huh? If you have a very low call volume, you pay a small upfront amount, and a slightly higher monthly fee to subsidise the cost. I have not seen any provider that makes you purchase the handset and pay a contract. Mostly, if you're making $30 of calls or more, you get the handset for free. Most phones I've used, and I've used a lot, have not been locked to a provider. I've switched between Telstra, Optus and Vodafone SIM cards without batting an eyelid.
I simply signed for a one year contract, got the Ericsson R320s (infra-red, WAP), and that's it.
When i left Australia, i was able to use the phone in Europe without issues.
"Doing what i can, with what i have." ~ Burt Gummer
The problem is that the format for saving contacts on the SIM was set years ago, and the capabilities of phone's contact lists have improved since then (support for groups, email and street addresses saved with the numbers, more than one numbers per contact, more than 250 contacts). That said, my Sony Ericcson does support transparently mirroring numbers on the SIM card, though I've never tried to use the SIM in another phone, so I don't know how well it works (do I get 4 entries all with the same name when a contact has 4 numbers stored against it? What happens when I hit 250 numbers?).
Last winter I bought Siemens S66 and the cheapest $29.99 local plan from Cingular. I had to go to Europe for summer and wanted to use the phone there. The phone was advertised as business class tri-band GSM phone that would work worldwide. That's why I bought it since I thought I would use it while I am in Europe. When I got to Europe and tried to use SIM card from another carrier the phone would not take it and was asking for a unlock code. I e-mailed Cingular and asked for the code. They e-mailed me the unlock code - it didn't work. I e-mailed them again telling the code did not work. Cingular told me that the code would not work unless I upgrade to another (more expensive) plan. I didn't want to do that since the whole point was to use it with European SIM since their rates were much cheaper. The roaming feature worked though, but Cingular international rates are ridiculous!
So, I went to the guys who were "specialists" in unlocking phones from other countries. They checked the serial number on the phone (under the battery) and immediately told me that my phone (Siemens S66) could not be unlocked since it was made for U.S. market; the same European phone is Siemens S65, not S66.
My solution was to buy a cheap phone and use it with SIM card from European carrier since I did not have to sign any contracts. Also, it was cheaper than upgrading my Cingular plan in order to be able to use my Cingular phone with European SIM card.
T-Mobile gives out the unlock code if you contact them after a month. I don't plan on switching networks anytime soon, but I went ahead and unlocked my phone anyway just in case.
I read the internet for the articles.
I work for Cingular, and we DON'T give out unlock codes, ever, no matter who the customer is or what they say. I doubt if any US wireless provider does. If you can figure out how to unlock it yourself, then great, but there is simply no reason for a wireless provider to help you switch to another network.
T-Mobile DOES give out unlock codes after you have been a paying customer for 3 months. That is EXACTLY why I am their customer and not yours. I did my research prior to getting my phone and I knew that T-Mobile would unlock it for free for me.