This isn't that new; PDANet has been blocked on AT&T in this manner for at least a year (from my experience having tried to download it when I first got an N1). Searching for it in the Market yielded nothing when an AT&T SIM was in the phone. On my N1 the easy solution to the block was just to power down the phone, pull the SIM, then access the market over wifi. All those carrier blocked apps suddenly reappeared. I d…
Another possible work-around is Amazon's App store. That's where I purchased EasyTeather Pro. Are the carriers/Google going to force all App stores to bend to their whims?
Actually while SMS messages are overcharged for, especially messages that pass between international boundaries, on pre 3G networks they are far more of a burden on the network than you would imagine which means the networks have a vested interesting in keeps the numbers being sent down a little. See http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/10/sms_denialofse... for some details on a theoretical DoS attack based on…
Thanks for the details but I think it backs up my contention, as the networks are all upgraded the companies are trying to maintain the old sms prices without technical justification.
I'm not disagreeing with you as such (SMS pricing is definitely OTT, especially cross-border given that the transmission between countries and providers is not limited by the 2G per-cell control channel bandwidth), but they currently have account for the fact that a chunk of their subscribers will be sending via the older (limited throughput) method rather than the newer one(s). My phone is capable of everything that is commonly "out there", but right now it is playing at being a 2G handset as the 3G signal is lousy out here.
This isn't that new; PDANet has been blocked on AT&T in this manner for at least a year (from my experience having tried to download it when I first got an N1). Searching for it in the Market yielded nothing when an AT&T SIM was in the phone. On my N1 the easy solution to the block was just to power down the phone, pull the SIM, then access the market over wifi. All those carrier blocked apps suddenly reappeared. I d…
Another possible work-around is Amazon's App store. That's where I purchased EasyTeather Pro. Are the carriers/Google going to force all App stores to bend to their whims?
AT&T's app sideloading ban makes Amazon's app store moot at present, and it certainly puts AT&T in a bargaining position to request Amazon implement these carrier specific blocks too if Amazon wants access to all these AT&T devices.