We formerly suspected that would be the case, but now it’s sanctioned the Nothing phone( 1) won’t be available in the US. No North American carrier was on the supported list that we saw history when 100 limited edition units were put up for the transaction. Then’s what the company had to say
“ While we’d love to bring a phone( 1) to the entire community around the world, we’re fastening on home requests, including the UK and Europe, where we’ve strong hookups with leading original carriers. It takes a lot to launch a smartphone as you know, from icing the handset is supported by the country’s cellular technologies to carrier hookups and original regulation, and as we’re still a youthful brand we need to be strategic about it, ” said Nothing in a statement to PCMag.
Verizon doesn’t allow mobile phones on its network that aren’t on its whitelist. also, AT&T enables VoLTE only for select phones. And that’s effectively a ban since without VoLTE your phone will need to drop down to 3G to make a call and AT&T shut down its 3G network this February. T- Mobile is more open, but it doesn’t use all of the same bands as European carriers, so the content will be spotty.
Nothing does have plans to launch a smartphone in the US in the future, but it’ll need to get at least one major carrier on board first. Author Carl Pei has done it ahead, the OnePlus 6 was the first from his former company to vend in the US and Canada with support from several carriers( but not each).
PS. Indeed though some units are being auctioned off right now, the Nothing phone( 1) launch is set for July 12.