Based on the MWSF announcement of exclusivity, that's what I expected. I don't know why many people expected anything else as all SIM cards are not created equal.
Yes, phone companies often lock a phone so that no other SIM card can be used with it except that phone company's SIM card. However, phones can often be unlocked by dealers or even non-dealers.
It was stated on day one that the iPhone was going to be locked to AT&T (or at that time Cingular as it was known).
This means that you could not and cannot put a different networks SIM in an iPhone (that's what locking means in this context).
What you might be able to do is take the SIM from an iPhone and put that in a different phone e.g. a Nokia and use that on the AT&T network. I have seen nothing discussing this, if it is not possible to take the SIM from an iPhone and use it in a different phone then that would count as locking the SIM but it is not something I have ever heard of being done on GSM phones (and SIMs) before.
This is a non news story.
The article speaks of locking the iPhone, a common industry practice not unique to the iPhone. However, it says nothing about what it means to have a locked SIM. I have never heard of someone locking a SIM. Basically, locking a SIM means that it would perhaps only work on an AT&T iPhone or only work on AT&T branded GSM phones. Current AT&T SIMs are not locked.
I fully expect my current AT&T SIM to work in an iPhone. This is not unreasonable.
Commenting by HaloScan
