Carriers do not support PinePhone?

[rey70]

While I do see the issue,
I do not understand WHY the main (backbone) carriers Refuse to serve some phones  --->  but DO allow their resellers to deliver that service.

BUT !  Hey I am Glad they are available.

I wish there was more of a backbone selection,  Just 3 Backbone providers  is approaching a Monopoly type condition.

***  (Pertaining to USA usage)

Yeah, that is what I wanted to know as well. For the large carriers it all boils down to IMEI and the information that provides about the device, they view it as something that doesn't have phone capabilities so they insert a "Voice Restricted" flag.

MVNO's are independent from the carriers, it is up to them on how they perform the device plan validation. So where the carriers look at that IMEI and associate it with a no phone capable device, the MVNO's (some), don't perform that check, or don't care. They figure you are coming to buy a sim card for a phone, we are not going to block you using your phone.

I am glad they are available to, it would suck to have a small computer shaped like a phone that couldn't be a phone.