Tag Archives | T-Mobile

Your Take on This AT&T-T-Mobile Thing

Posted by Harry McCracken on March 24, 2011 at 4:47 pm

I spent the last few days at the CTIA Wireless show in Orlando, and the big news at the show wasn’t big news from the show. It was, of course, the proposed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile US. Everyone at the conference seemed to still be processing it in their minds–and I decided to ask my friends over at Twitter (where I’m @harrymccracken) for their takes as of right now.

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Why Wireless Carriers Both Promote and Dread 4G

Posted by Yardena Arar on March 23, 2011 at 9:00 am

Here at the CTIA Wireless show in Orlando, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse says that with the planned summer launch of HTC’s 3D EVO and 4G EVO tablet, Sprint will have 22 4G devices, more than any of its rivals. Verizon says it will bring its 4G LTE network to 147 markets by year’s end, while AT&T is simultaneously building out its HSPA network while preparing to launch its LTE network later this year.

No question, 4G is the next mobile battleground for what shapes up to be a smaller field of national carriers. But at a day of sessions on the subject (sponsored by Fierce Wireless, which among other things publishes a first-rate daily newsletter on the wireless industry), the dominant theme seemed to be that the carriers may not be ready to deal with the enormous bandwidth demands their fast devices and networks will inevitably produce.

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T-Mobile Launching 42Mbps Service in Three Markets

Posted by Ed Oswald on March 21, 2011 at 10:52 pm

What merger? T-Mobile is doing exactly what it promised — moving on regardless of Sunday’s merger news. Data junkies will salivate at this one: the carrier has announced the first cities to get its 42Mbps network upgrade.

Now do you understand why AT&T wanted the carrier so much?

New York City, Las Vegas, and Orlando would be the first cities to see the high-speed service. Chicago will follow soon after along with the Long Island, NY and northern New Jersey. These speed boosts would “theoretically” double maximum speeds in these areas, and it expects by mid year to have increased speeds in about 25 markets covering some 140 million people.

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Google and Sprint Buddy Up on Nexus S, Google Voice

Posted by Harry McCracken on March 21, 2011 at 6:21 am

The Googlephone. It’s a concept that sometimes sounds an exciting taste of the future, and sometimes sounds like it’s already fizzled. And today, it’s back to being exciting: Google has announced that there will be a Sprint 4G version of its fine Nexus S phone–and that it will give consumers all the goodness of Google voice without making them switch their phone numbers. That’ll make it the first true native Google Voice phone.

The news would be noteworthy whenever it came down, but the timing is fascinating. It came down hours after AT&T agreed to acquire T-Mobile–there latter being the carrier that partnered with Google for the Nexus One and original Nexus S, and the only national carrier other than Sprint that counts as a scrappy underdog. Sprint needs good news; Google needs a wireless partner that isn’t T-Mobile and that doesn’t insist on acting like an 800-pound gorilla. Short of Google buying a phone carrier, there are all kinds of interesting things it could do with Sprint if the two companies agreed to let Google take the sort of dominant role that Apple took with the iPhone but which otherwise just doesn’t happen.

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AT&T-Mobile Is a Win for T-Mobile’s Customers

Posted by Ed Oswald on March 20, 2011 at 11:45 pm

It seems as if the popular take among tech pundits in light of Sunday’s announcement of the AT&T and T-Mobile merger is that it is a bad situation for everyone involved. Among the reasons I’ve seen so far are a further consolidation of an already top-heavy industry, the threat of rising prices as a result of less alternatives, and a loss of one of Android’s most stalwart partners.

But let’s step back a minute from the insta-reactions of most of the tech world and look at the bottom line: merger or not, T-Mobile’s customers stand to benefit the most by far. The deal is written in such a way that even if regulators scoff at it, T-Mobile will exit in a much stronger position than it is currently in.

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T-Mobile Announces Sidekick 4G

Posted by Ed Oswald on March 15, 2011 at 6:23 pm

After T-Mobile discontined sales of the iconic Sidekick smartphone last July, some wondered if the company had plans to keep the brand alive. There had been some rumors that the company was planning on a new Android-based version of the device — that appears to be true. The Sidekick 4G will hit the shelves later this spring, sporting a familiar design but fast HSPA+ data and manufactured by Samsung.

While the device will certainly look like a Sidekick, it willl have some key changes. The 3.5-inch display is now a touchscreen, and it will be tightly integrated with social media with built in Facebook and Twitter applications. Since it’s now a Android device, users will now have access to the thousands of apps from the Android Market.

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Samsung Takes Flak for Leaving Androids Behind

Posted by Jared Newman on January 13, 2011 at 9:28 am

This rumor is about as shaky as they come, but Android Spin is accusing Samsung of deliberately withholding the Android 2.2 upgrade from T-Mobile’s Vibrant just to drum up sales of the Froyo-equipped Samsung Vibrant 4G. The report quotes an unnamed source, supposedly from within T-Mobile.

While I have my doubts about that report — at least, I don’t want to believe Samsung would stoop so low — AndroidDose points out one irrefutable fact: Samsung has not upgraded any of its Galaxy S phones to Android 2.2 in the United States (including T-Mobile’s Vibrant, Verizon’s Fascinate, AT&T’s Captivate, Sprint’s Epic 4G and U.S. Cellular’s Mesmerize). The company hasn’t even announced a timeline, six months after the first Galaxy S phones launched stateside on AT&T and T-Mobile.

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