While I'm totally in favour of playing by the rules, the ITU lists 2025-2110 MHz as both earth to space and space to space use. Not quite as menacing as implied.
As a Nokia Mobile Phones employee in the mid 2000s, I can confirm this was indeed the case. The US wouldn't pay over $100 for a handset, and Nokia was already losing money on hardware in the phone sale to have it subsidized by network providers. Nokia wanted to add tech and capability, but the high end stuff didn't sell at a profit and carriers wouldn't sell phones that were more expensive than their customers would pay. Apple was an exception due to marketing as "premium".
Thanks, I've passed this on. My kid was directly impacted by the initial decision.