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The curse of AT&T: Why Jeff Pulver won't be buying an iPhone

VON guru Jeff Pulver knows a bit more about international phone systems than many US buyers, being a phone collector. But, he says, AT&T's name behind the iPhone means this is one toy he won't be picking up. At least, not until unlocked versions show up in London on the "grey" market.

Jeff may be in for bad news, because it looks like the SIM in the iPhone isn't replaceable.

Pulver writes in his blog today:

The only reason why I choose NOT to wait in line for an iPhone is that as a person of many GSM devices, mostly Nokia Phones: N70, N73, N93, N95, E61, N80, N800, N80i as well as a Blackberry 8700, I'm happy to try out a new device by placing my SIM card into the device. All of the devices that I use are unlocked and I have the flexibility of using whatever SIM card I want to in these devices. And when I travel overseas I have the ability of placing a local SIM card in these devices and the phones just work - as they should.

So when I heard that in the United States, that in order to use an Apple iPhone I also had to be a subscriber to AT&T Wireless, I said No! It is not that T-Mobile has the best coverage (or the best service) but in principal, I am not in favour of any vendor whose device is locked into a certain service provider.

What ever happened to my freedom of choice? I hope AT&T is paying Apple enough money to cover all of the sales they are losing from customers who have relationships on other carrier networks who would have also purchased the device if the AT&T phone service wasn't a requirement.

The good news: the 3G iPhone will be multi-SIM, if rumours are right. The bad news: the first edition iPhone may always be tied to Cingular.