Question about carriers and phone availability in the US

[waeras]

Hello,

One thing I've noticed, both when browsing the forum and the articles (and comments) here on wpcentral is the constant discussion of which carrier gets which phones etc.

This might be a really stupid question, but can't people in the US just go buy an unbranded/unlocked phone from any retailer and use it with whatever carrier they chose, just like we do here in Europe?
I might have misunderstood, and the discussion might be regarding 2 year plans with a cheaper phone or whatever, but from what I've seen it seems as if some carriers doesn't support some phones at all and you either need to change carrier or get another phone.

Can someone please explain how this works for me?

(Here in Sweden you can just buy your phone in any electronics store since they all stock every new phone, or import it from anywhere in the world, put in a sim card from your carrier and you're good to go. I thought this was how it worked everywhere.)

 

[palandri]

It's different in the states. The carriers have strong control over the mobile industry, plus they want everyone on a long term contract.

We have GSM and CDMA carriers. With the CDMA carriers, you can't buy an iPhone on Verizon and take it Sprint. You would have to buy a Sprint iPhone to use it on Sprint.

We have two GSM carriers, but AT&T and T-Mobile use different frequencies for 3G data.

I am really disappointed with Nokia Lumia 900, it's locked to AT&T and no one can get an lock code for it

Myself, I always buy unbranded/unlocked phone.

 

[waeras]

Oh, that explains it I guess. Here everyone is on the same frequencies/bands. (Sure, the carriers here want everyone on long term contracts aswell, and the phones are cheaper or free with a contract, but no one carrier has their own unique frequency.)

Thanks for clarifying it though, I have been wondering about this for months. :blush:

 

[speedtouch]

I wish our mobile phone system was the same as yours, Waeras. It would make life so much easier.