Good News / Bad News: GSM Palm Pre Bands and Unlocking
 

Good News / Bad News: GSM Palm Pre Bands and Unlocking

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Let's start with the good news: The Palm Pre will be Quad-Band on GSM and Tri-Band 3G. The devil's in the details, but it this case it's angels

• Palm Pre GSM Bands: 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
• Palm Pre UMTS/HSDPA Bands: 850 / 1900 / 2100

Those bands, as ToniCipriani in our forums corrected predicted, support both European and US 3G on AT&T. Cheers and adulation.
Now for the tricky part: the Palm Pre in the UK and Ireland appears to be SIM-locked and since it's exclusive to O2, a SIM-Free version won't be available. This is in contrast to Palm's own Treo Pro, which was available unlocked from the get-go. Unlocked Palm Pre: not so much.
Hackers: Start your unlocking. Everybody else, sit tight and think about how you're going to get around the fact that you must sign a contract with O2 UK in order to purchase the Pre in the first place - so that even if we get a speedy unlock on the SIM, that doesn't necessarily make it a cakewalk to import and use the Pre in the US.
The German version, however, is a bit different. It's available "SIM-Free," which means that Germans don't need to sign up for a contract in order to purchase the Pre. Big ups to O2 in Germany for their transparent pricing and plans:

With the new concept O2 My Handy customers can finance Palm Pre independent of the contract at zero percent interest rate. Customers make a down payment of € 1 in the O2 shop or online at

Code:

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www.o2online.de

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and pay the remaining sum in 24 monthly rates of € 20 each

We're also told that the German Palm will not be SIM-locked to O2. If we can confirm that, it will be good news, but don't forget that this Pre will only be available with the QWERTZ-style keyboard, so would-be importers will have to deal with that issue.
In other words, it's a mixed bag for anybody who wants a GSM Palm Pre without signing up with O2.
Update: Meyerweb makes an excellent point in the comments: The Sprint Palm Pre requires activation and a working data connection to work out of the box, otherwise you're stuck starting at a Palm Profile Login screen. We don't know if Palm's profile checks for carrier compatibility, but either way potential unlockers could be looking at another roadblock.
Update 2: Confirmed: the German Pre will be available unlocked. Thanks to everybody who let us know!


originally found here: