Microsoft Kin Devices Provisioned for Multiple Carriers
When Microsoft officially announced their Kin One and Kin Two devices, the world at large seemed a bit confused. But when they announced that Verizon Wireless would be the exclusive launch partner here in the States, along with Vodafone over across the pond, people’s fear quietly dwindled down to confusion. Mostly on part of the handsets themselves, and not so much on carrier choice. But, thanks to a single individual, it looks like Microsoft has indeed seen into the future, and realized that their social phones may be seeing more carriers.
Having a set of provisions in a device, especially a GSM-based handset, isn’t anything new. The whole idea is to make it easier for the device to attach to other carrier’s networks. They include 3G APNs and service center numbers, amongst other pieces of information that make unlocked devices connect to networks around the globe. So, while the Verizon Wireless handsets will be locked, either Microsoft knows that they’ve got agreements with other wireless carriers, or even better yet, unlocked devices are going to be made available over in Europe (and maybe even in the United States).
There’s a list of the places provisioned below for your perusal, if you’re interested. We’re curious as to how long we’ll have to wait for all of this to happen, if anything is indeed happening. Considering the European launch of the Kin devices isn’t until later this year, it’ll probably be after that. So, time to keep on waiting, folks.
AT&T (US)
T-Mobile (US)
Verizon (US)
Fido (Canada)
China Mobile
China Unicom
O2 (Germany)
T-Mobile (Germany)
Vodafone (Germany)
Vodafone (Spain)
Vodafone (France)
Vodafone (Portugal)
Vodafone (Italy)
DoCoMo (Japan)
Softbank (Japan)
Telia (Sweden)
Three (Sweden)
Orange (UK)
O2 (UK)
Vodafone (UK)
[via SlashGear]