

Ask HN: What was the first cell phone to be carrier locked? - sinak

Hey folks,<p>A reporter from Mother Jones just called me to ask when cell phones first started being locked by carriers/manufacturers.<p>And I have no idea. I'd guess it was around the introduction of GSM and SIM cards, but not sure. Does anyone here happen to remember?<p>Sina,
http://fixthedmca.org
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saurik
I was under the impression that the idea of cell phones being manufactured by
companies unrelated to carriers (as in, not under contract by the carrier,
although AT&T may seriously have made their own mobile handsets for a while),
implementing published (if even still proprietary) specifications, allowing
for the ability to move a handset between carriers, would have been a more
recent invention than the cell phone. I mean, put it this way: how do you
solve the chicken and the egg problem unless you sell them bundled together?

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sinak
I agree that before standardization, all cell phones were likely effectively
locked.

Locking isn't built into the GSM standard though, so I wonder if the first
interoperable devices were sold with locks. If not, I'm curious as to when the
locks were first installed on standardized devices.

