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."

Comments

what we the users have to do...

[dartarrow]

1. Import the C113 and C113a handsets
2. ??????
3. PROFIT!!

i don't get it..

[dartarrow]

FTA: I got to see the C113 and C113a handsets in Barcelona. Very small and very cute. They work in nearly every country on the planet -- except for the United States. Our GSM phones use different frequencies."

Seems to me the problem is the fact that its not gonna work in US, not that there's a big arm blocking it away cuz its cheap. Who edited this anyway??