It looks like Americans and Canadians are getting ... nothing.
Carl Pei's buzzy phone firm, which he says will be a top alternative to Apple's iPhone, will skip North America for its phone release on July 12, the company confirmed to PCMag.
The problem was first noticed by veteran leaker Evan Blass. Nothing has a list of supported wireless carriers, and there are no US or Canadian carriers on it.
Nothing said you can try to use the Phone (1) in the US, but it may not work well. It will have "unpredictable" coverage on T-Mobile, have no voice-over-4G on AT&T and no service on Verizon at all.
In a statement the company explained:
"While we’d love to bring phone (1) to the entire community around the world, we're focusing on home markets, including the UK and Europe, where we have strong partnerships with leading local carriers. It takes a lot to launch a smartphone as you know, from ensuring the handset is supported by the country’s cellular technologies to carrier partnerships and local regulation, and as we're still a young brand we need to be strategic about it."
Reading between the lines here, it looks like Nothing just couldn't come to a deal to get the phone cleared by US carriers - or it couldn't afford their costly approval processes.
Don't despair, though, as there is hope for the future:
"We have big plans to launch a U.S. supported smartphone in the future. For now, a limited number of our private community investors in the U.S. will be able to get their hands on phone (1) through a closed beta program. In the meantime, if readers really want phone (1) to be available in the US as soon as possible, they should call their carrier to let them know about us."
A Step Back From OnePlus
Carl Pei is best known for being the co-founder of OnePlus, which took until its OnePlus 6T phone to be sold by a US carrier. But earlier models were sold, marketed in, and compatible with the US, they just weren't sold on carrier shelves.
US carrier requirements have been getting tougher in recent years. During the 3G era, AT&T and T-Mobile were required by industry standards to accept any phone technically compatible with their systems. There's no such requirement for 4G and 5G, so the carriers can (and do) 'white list,' or only permit accepted phones on their networks.
This has compounded with other factors, such as US carriers using a different swathe of 5G airwaves than carriers in other countries, to make international phones less compatible here. Recently I tried cutting-edge phones including the Oppo Find X5 Pro, the Iqoo 9 Pro and the Realme GT2 Pro, none of which worked properly on any US network I tried them on.
Still though, this is a very disappointing development from Nothing. The company obviously values US creatives and media, as shown in their recent video collaboration with Marques Brownlee - they just don't seem to value them quite enough to make a phone for them.