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> […] but my carrier in the US probably doesn't support such phones yet as far as I'm aware.

Is there something specific about US carriers that prevents a phone running Ubuntu Touch from working? My experience in Europe is that my Ubuntu Touch phone (Meizu Pro 5) just works, because it supports all the necessary bands and SIM-cards. I don't think my carrier really cares what phone I use.

The US is still split between carriers using cdma, and gsm. So if the carrier is on cdma, SIM cards don't exist.

Are the CDMA ones planning on moving to LTE?

They (Verizon, Sprint) already have, but they still use CDMA in outlying areas and for voice service. (Verizon, especially, is known for having the best rural service, at least in the rural areas near where I live.) Verizon does use SIM cards for LTE; I'm not sure about Spring but I'm guessing they do as well.

Both still have the CDMA-carrier mindset of wanting only "their" devices on their networks. In the past they would not (usually?) activate a phone not sold by them even if could work, but I feel like I've heard of people using unlocked devices with Verizon, but it could just be iPhones.

I set my granddaughter up with an unlocked Nexus 6 on Verizon.

Can you buy SIM cards for Verizon/Sprint and the GSM carriers? Or do they force you to buy a phone that includes a SIM?

You could technically buy an unlocked phone and ask for a SIM Card though I've never done this so I cannot say how well this works. I'm on Sprint and my last few phones have had an internal SIM.

My understanding is that Verizon CDMA use the 450mhz band. A band I have seen described as the butter zone for mobile communications (Also the band used for the initial Nordic NMT network).

> I would love to have a Ubuntu Phone, but my carrier in the US probably doesn't support such phones yet as far as I'm aware.

How does that work? Does the carrier have to support each new brand of phone?

I don't think we have a system like that here in the UK. I have an iPhone 6 paid for with a monthly contract, but I was using a ~2002 Nokia feature phone recently while it was away for repair.

Just went through this research again for the first time in five or six years. One of the most frustrating things about US carriers is that they force manufacturers to limit their offerings in this market.

For example, dual SIM card phones are not offered on any phones built for the US market, since carriers make a lot of their money from financing new phones. There are also phones with three and four SIM cards made for other markets. Need two (or three or four) numbers? In the US, you have to buy two (or three or four) phones.

AT&T and T-Mobile use the GSM protocol on their networks, which is the protocol used in the rest of the world. The 2G bands use different frequencies in this hemisphere than the frequencies used in Europe and Asia. The 3G and 4G and LTE bands are different yet, but the basic protocol is the same, so if the radio works, the phone works.

Sprint and Verizon use a different protocol called CDMA which is incompatible with GSM. Phones designed for foreign markets do not work at all on their networks.

So to summarize, barriers built using different protocols and marketing limit the ability for US consumers to treat their handset for what it is (a commodity) and help lock them in to one of two carriers. This is why Apple and Samsung can get away with charging $600+ for devices that cost a very small fraction of that to manufacture using impoverished laborers.

I just bought a 2G Philips dual SIM phone made in China for the Russian market that will work on T-mobile's US 2G network. (It will not work on AT&T since they turned off their 2G network on January 1.) I plan to use two SIM cards for the two numbers I have, and to limit mobile data to a tablet for those times when I absolutely need it. Everything else (paying bills, looking for work, shopping, playing games, getting directions, etc.) will be done on a laptop or desktop.

I would welcome reform of the US cell market, but I'm not holding my breath for that to happen. They simply have too much power, and most Americans are completely unaware that it could be any different or better.

Are Apple and Samsung phones cheaper in Europe?

I hope that's a rhetorical question.. pretty much every company loves to shaft Europe on price, even with taxes considered. Although Australia has it even worse!

> Sprint and Verizon use a different protocol called CDMA which is incompatible with GSM.

This was only true up until LTE. LTE is GSM.

This is a distinction without a difference until VoLTE is the only option. Calls and texts are still sent over CDMA.

US CDMA carriers right now require that you whitelist your phone's IMEI before it will activate. That means, even if your phone is compatible with all bands used, you can't just pop a SIM in and have it work. That may change once VoLTE is everywhere, but it may not, because carriers like making it hard to bring your own device, so you'll buy it from them instead. Verizon has some restrictions here, due to their purchase of the 700mhz LTE spectrum, but they still make it difficult.

> For example, dual SIM card phones are not offered on any phones built for the US market, since carriers make a lot of their money from financing new phones.

Actually there are plenty of dual SIM models available in the US from US companies that are 100% compatible with US carriers, you just have to be willing to open a browser and shop for five minutes. I am currently using a Microsoft Lumia 650 dual SIM phone, purchased from Microsoft and shipped to me in Georgia (US) from California. It fully supports both AT&T's and T-Mobile's networks, and consequently all MVNOs of those networks. Until I gave her my Nexus 6, my wife was using a dual SIM Blu Android phone, sold by a Florida based company and shipped from the US. Again, the phone supported all US GSM bands.

I stand corrected. I was not shopping for smartphones this time around, so hadn't looked at those. There isn't nearly as much variety in basic phones and feature phones offered in the US.

You're right, and that's unfortunate. I wanted a basic phone for porting out my Google voice number to my carrier when I decided to stop using all Google services, but there wasn't anything worth having that was cheaper than a smartphone. So, since I was buying a new smartphone anyway, I went with a dual SIM model.

I don't understand the aversion to rooting, other than the obvious security implications. Few consumers install Ubuntu (or another desktop distro) on their machine and don't allow themselves root access, so it's difficult to imagine having much freedoms on your phone without doing so either. Try a custom ROM (e.g. CyanogenMod or its apparent descendant LineageOS) which adds many more options to AOSP and doesn't force you to use Google Play Services. I'm running this currently with an open source Google Play alternative [1] and it works surprisingly well, with far better battery life and performance.

[1]: https://github.com/microg/android_packages_apps_GmsCore/wiki

I think it comes down to expense upon repair, and OEMs raising a stink if you try to get something fixed on a rooted device (even if it is clearly a hardware failure).