FreeCalypso got official IMEIs

[Mychaela Falconia]

Hello FreeCalypso community,

I am pleased to announce that as of two days ago our FreeCalypso
triband modem product has an official IMEI TAC issued to us by GSMA:

https://www.freecalypso.org/members/falcon/fcdev3b/fcdev3b-imei.pdf

When we get our upcoming batch of FCDEV3B V2 boards made, they will
have official IMEIs assigned to them from this TAC range; in the case
of the few FCDEV3B V1 boards which I previously shipped out with IMEIs
borrowed from Openmoko's range, I have emailed their owners with
instructions on how to change their IMEIs to the new correct official
ones.  If I missed anyone, i.e., if you got an FCDEV3B modem board
from me previously, if you are operating or going to operate that
modem on any public GSM network in the conventional manner and if you
haven't got IMEI change instructions from me, please email me off-list.

The significance of having our own IMEI TAC is that it allows us to
stand tall and proud before various GSM network operators and other
parties in the mainstream GSM world, proudly identifying ourselves as
FreeCalypso rather than pretending to be someone else.  When someone
connects to a public GSM network from a FreeCalypso modem with an
official FreeCalypso IMEI, if that network operator were to look up in
the global IMEI database "what kind of device is this?", they would
see that the device is a FreeCalypso triband modem, made by Falconia
Partners LLC as the official manufacturer of record, with me listed as
the main technical contact.  OTOH, if we were to squat on unused
portions of someone else's IMEI range, then we would be misidentifying
ourselves as some unrelated device make and model and thus letting
someone else take undeserved credit for being the world's 2G leader,
which is not nearly as fun.  There is also that guy who seemingly
appointed himself as the spokesman and official representative for the
long-defunct Openmoko company, and he expressed displeasure at our use
of IMEIs borrowed from OM's old range; having our own official IMEIs
and not having to borrow OM's any more is thus a good measure.

I need to make it very clear though that IMEIs from the new range
which has just been allocated to Falconia Partners LLC as listed in
the TAC certificate linked above apply ONLY to those hardware devices
which are physically made and sold by Falconia Partners LLC.  If you
are running our FreeCalypso fw on some pre-existing Calypso hw made by
Motorola, Openmoko, Pirelli or whatever other historical vendor, then
you need to use whatever IMEI your physical device came with, just
like we've always done and will continue to do.  OTOH, if you are
going to *manufacture* your own GSM devices, whether Calypso-based or
not, whether they run FreeCalypso fw or not, whether or not they are
based on a design which I created and published, then by the official
rules you must go through the same official IMEI TAC application
process which I just went through and get your own TAC under your own
registered brand name.

M~