Yesterday we posted news that a previously unknown carrier called US Mobile were selling Xiaomi and Meizu phones, and as a suggested in comment the deal seems unofficial.
After reading the news posted that Xiaomi and Meizu were working with US Mobile, an unknown carrier by us and many of you, I thought something sounded off. First of all the carrier was selling older models like the Mi3, or unwanted models such as the Mi4i (the badly optimised brother of the wonderful Mi4C), plus the MI4 and Meizu M2 Note which are notoriously hard to sell these days.
The other issue was the fact that these phones don’t even support LTE bands in the U.S, although HSPA+ should work.
We’re sure Xiaomi and Meizu would never willing sell their phones with nonfunctioning LTE in the U.S, a market which can make or break a brand.
The folks over at Androidpolice had similar thoughts too and took a closer look at US Mobile and discovered that the Xiaomi and Meizu phones being offered are actually coming from a reseller in Hong Kong, not a local warehouse.
It appears that the carrier has simply made a deal with a large wholesale company to help them get rid of old, difficult to ship stock.
What’s more fishy is that once contacted about information US Mobile’s site changed the listing of some phones to out of stock and removed all mention of their Hong Kong supplier.
We’re sure that Xiaomi will be the first to pull the plug on these unauthorised sales and all keep you posted with further updates.
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