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Comment by Freak_NL | Hacker News Reader

> […] 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.

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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).

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