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Originally Posted by elcreative
This is more to do with stealing from the service providers... Sony have an agreement with US mobile service providers, they don't with non-US... this a primary reason why the PRS950 is NOT available outside the US except as a "grey" import (unsupported) and everyone who buys one should know this, it's not rocket science...
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Nor is it rocket science that an entity which has no agreement with a service provider cannot be charged by that service provider. And conversely a person can't obtain a service from a service provider unless s/he signs an agreement and purchases a SIM from that provider... How would allowing the use of other SIM cards overseas in this device facilitate "stealing from the service providers"?
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Sony do not sell or support the 950 outside the US, if you've got one then that's your choice but don't expect anyone to casually work out a way to perform illegal acts which would result in Sony getting billed for accesses... see Kartu's comment above...
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I'm having trouble understanding how allowing the use of other SIMs would cause "Sony [to be]... billed for accesses". Or indeed how we are asking someone to perform illegal acts.
The only potential for abuse would be if: a)the limit on the usage of the 3G connection occurred only in the device itself rather than at the service providers' end; AND b) whoever implemented the hack also removed this limitation.
If the limitation exists only on the device, the system is very open to abuse regardless of any hack since someone could remove the SIM and plug it into their mobile phone, or 3G modem and use the internet as much as they wanted to at Sony's expense*. I highly doubt that this is the case. And if it were, no one here would suggest a mod that would remove this limitation. Allowing the use of third party SIMs would simply allow overseas owners to have the same functionality as US owners. It wouldn't facilitate anyone "stealing from the service providers" or "billing Sony for access".
If, as I suspect, the limitation is at the service providers' end, then there is no potential for abuse through firmware modding. In which case opening the firmware to allow other SIMs as well as removing the restriction on 3G browsing would add functionality for all users without doing anything illegal, since connection through the Sony SIM would be limited regardless of the hack.
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In fact trying to use the SIM in another device to access something other than the Sony store would be a good way to test whether the limitation was in the device itself or in the settings for the account associated with the SIM at the service providers' end.