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Comment by TMWNN | Hacker News Reader

>If you're relying on your competitor to enable your business model then you're not competing with them.

The 6502 was one of the two dominant 8-bit computer CPUs ... and was manufactured by Commodore, which was happy to sell CPUs to Apple, Atari, Acorn, and anyone else.

Specifically in telecom, in the US there are many MVNOs that resell mobile phone service from the big three carriers. Somehow both the MVNOs and the national carriers make money.

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> Somehow both the MVNOs and the national carriers make money.

The history of MVNOs seems to indicate otherwise. Not a lot of them survive as independent entities; I think because there's not a lot of profit to be had, and most MVNOs are setup where the business is captive to a given operator. You'd need to reissue SIM cards to each customer in order to switch to a new operator, and that's expensive; not to mention some customers have operator locked phones that wouldn't be able to switch, so you've got to develop a plan for them as well.

SIMs can technically be remotely reprogrammed through SMS messages: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/01/sim-card-...

I don't think you can change the IMSI remotely, or at least, you're not supposed to be able to. Most US MVNOs use IMSIs assigned to the operating carrier, which makes it hard to switch the operating carrier. Some do use their own IMSI, which you could then conceivably change network agreements and use a different network, but with today's networks, your users might have phones band optimized for the old carrier, and not have good reception with the new one.

Wasn't the 6502 manufactured by Motorola who sold to all of those companies?

No. MOS, formed by ex-Motorola employees, developed the 6502. Commodore bought MOS in 1976.

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