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I'd love it if it means my phone finds the best signal wherever I am, whether it be Tmo or Verizon or Sprint - maybe I pay for my service via Apple and then Apple distributes funds to services based on my usage. I'm on Tmobile, which has been pretty good aside from some issues recently, including a tower going down so I had little or no service for a few days last week. Would love it if when the Tmobile signal was unavailable, the phone could have looked for an alternative.
Given that the phone companies are effectively in a price war, maybe it's best that people become carrier-neutral? I dunno.
Most people with wireless available to them would save a lot of money buying their phones unlocked and then going prepaid. Even with the high price of a unlocked iPhone, ($649) it pays off in less than two years. Your mileage may vary of course.
"I'd love it if it means my phone finds the best signal wherever I am, whether it be Tmo or Verizon or Sprint ".
From the article, I don't think that that's going to happen any time soon. They are really talking about using one phone to manually choose between available local carriers, and even that's a pretty good idea if it happens.
With respect to the phone making an ongoing series of switching decisions, I'm not sure how that could work technically. If, for example, you were riding in a car, the signal quality available would have to be compared during a call not only between different towers of one carrier, but between different towers of multiple carriers, and there is really no practical way to perform switching of that nature, as it would require an entire new design of a carrier integrated common switching network.
Comments
Given that the phone companies are effectively in a price war, maybe it's best that people become carrier-neutral? I dunno.
From the article, I don't think that that's going to happen any time soon. They are really talking about using one phone to manually choose between available local carriers, and even that's a pretty good idea if it happens.
With respect to the phone making an ongoing series of switching decisions, I'm not sure how that could work technically. If, for example, you were riding in a car, the signal quality available would have to be compared during a call not only between different towers of one carrier, but between different towers of multiple carriers, and there is really no practical way to perform switching of that nature, as it would require an entire new design of a carrier integrated common switching network.
http://qz.com/282466/this-new-apple-sim-could-legitimately-disrupt-the-wireless-industry/