n900 preorder

[Oleg Goldshmidt]

2009/10/11 Erez D <erez0001 at gmail.com>:
> ok, lets say i have someone who is traveling abroad. will the us version of
> the n900 work with orange ? cellcom ? pelephone ? (i.e. standards and
> frequencies) ?

Looking at Nokia's specs - http://maemo.nokia.com/n900/specifications/

    * Quad-band GSM EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
    * WCDMA 900/1700/2100 MHz

It is not clear to me whether these co-exist in every device or it is
either/or. I'd assume both EDGE and WCDMA - AFAIK it's normal in
modern handsets. I suppose a 3G GSM sim from, say, Orange should work.
EDGE should be backwards-compatible, in the sense that if there is no
EDGE coverage it should still work with GPRS, etc. I have not tried,
though - it is an assumption only.

>From the Amazon link you posted it seems that it is GSM indeed

# This unlocked cell phone is compatible with GSM carriers like AT&T
and T-Mobile. Not all carrier features may be supported. It will not
work with CDMA carriers like Verizon Wireless, Alltel and Sprint.

Can anyone explain authoritatively what "unlocked" means? Is it (as I
suspect) just an assurance to the iPhone-crazy Americans that they
don't have to pay AT&T for 10 years or whatever? Or is it "modified in
some unspecified way"?

-- 
Oleg Goldshmidt | oleg at goldshmidt.org