Mike Temporale

Well, I think I got the answer possman was looking for. You're question is more about why the underlying technology is that way and why they don't do things different.

Right, they could. In fact, if I recall, there are a couple CDMA carriers that do this. Don't ask who, cause I don't remember that.

Well, there's lots of reasons. Locking the customer to your network/service is certainly one of those reasons. Having something that holds all the account data and can be easily removed from the device increases the risk of that account being cloned or comprimised.

Of course, this also has major drawbacks. The one that always comes into play is when you're phone breaks down. You have to beg the carrier to provide you a loaner. With GSM, you just grab someones old phone, slap in your SIM and away you go.

Well, it's all in the technical specifications of the network. Like I mentioned before, I recall that there are a couple CDMA carriers that use SIM cards. But overall, the phone manufacturers aren't building them that way and the majority of the equipment used to manage them doesn't alot for it. But that's just my ramblings. You'll have to dig into the specifications of each to find out if there's a deeply technical reason why it's not that way and it's not heading that way.

The simple answer is no, you can't do. And don't hold you're breath waiting for it to happen.

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