Hacker News Reader

Comment by Aoyagi | Hacker News Reader

>Manufacturers can activate the chip, but the decision to do so typically rests with carriers.

Um... carriers in US have any authority over hardware functions of people's devices? Why? What the hell?

Because of contracts. Every single phone on the market can turn itself into a wireless hotspot, but in US carriers have an ability to disable that option completely for users who haven't paid for a "tethering" package. It's crazy if you ask me.

I mean I knew American telcos were scum, but this is utterly ridiculous. What if you buy a device from abroad?

Doesn't matter. If you have an iphone then US carrier can send a command to it that completely disables tethering, I believe the option actually disappears from the menu. With android phones it's not as clear cut, some phones will respect that command some will not, obviously you can always make it work by rooting your phone, but most people don't do that.

I see. Is that a command sent via SMS? I know T-Mobile sent one (and when I didn't open it, a second) of those, but I've never opened them. But this is a Lumia, not an iPhone...

No, it's part of the cellular settings that your phone must download first and be configured by the network.

APN for an example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Access_Point_Name

if you buy an unsubsidized android device, the carriers don't get to tweak the functionality of the device. It doesn't have to be from an international seller - I bought my device directly from Motorola and just put my T-Mobile SIM card in it. However, it still comes with the US version of Android, which doesn't support the FM receiver.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com