The limitation to making niche phones are the stupid, sclerotic, *CARRIERS*--not... | Hacker News

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		bsder on May 17, 2022 \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: I want an iPhone Mini-sized Android phone The limitation to making niche phones are the stupid, sclerotic, CARRIERS--not the manufacturers. It's the carrier gatekeeping that prevents niche phones from forming. We need a ruling like from back in the Bell System era where you are allowed to bring customer equipment to the network without the network owner permission.

scarface74 on May 17, 2022 [–]

You don’t need a network owners permission for GSM/LTE. The only time you needed that was for CDMA.

izacus on May 17, 2022 | [–]

You need one for VoLTE (so any voice calls), 5G and Wifi calling.

Without carrier phone whitelist, you won't be able to call on AT&T and many other networks.

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