An insider tip says that T-Mobile is finally saying the next gen network they have been working on forever will be going live in the third quarter. Specific details are scarce but one can speculate that major metro areas will more than likely be the release point for this network. Of course all the current handsets will still work so you won’t have to buy a new phone to use the network.
On the other hand, the ability for current handsets to take advantage of the higher speed data rate remains to be seen.
February 11th, 2008 at 1:00 am
T-mobile currently has the ‘Nokia 6263′ & the ‘Samsung SGH-T639′ that are suppose to be 3G-capable, but currently not 3G-enabled.
February 11th, 2008 at 1:56 am
They have had 3G in UMTS form only up & running for over 12 months now in Manhattan, NY & in metro areas in Washington State. I believe the hold up is upgrading the network, which is 24 months past launch date, to HSUPA. I am also unclear on how the 1700mhz frequency is going to be used for both uplink & downlink, since CDMA uses two different sub-bands to achieve uplink and downlink.
February 11th, 2008 at 1:57 am
…and yes, HSPA is a form of CDMA before the flaming begins. It is NOT part of the CDMA 2000 PLATFORM.
February 11th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
3G is going to be on 1700 spectrum for the t-mobile group.
NO PHONE made before jan this year is compatible with the 1700 spectrum unless it was a government device.
as t-mobile can not go live with their 3g untill the government is completely off of it.
February 11th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
some of the above is wrong. and its probaly the part about the phones not being made.
March 27th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
T Mobile does have 3G capable handsets for sale. Unfortunately for the smartphone users on their network, none of our toys are planned for launch until late in the 3rd quarter. As we all know, those launch dates are rarely on time, so expect to see them around the holidays. The part about Tmo not activating the network nationwide is definitely 2 fold. 1st is the rate they are able to build out the network, this is taking much longer than anticipated, and the 2nd reason is the government. In many cities and smaller markets, the government hasn’t been able to switch out all of their equipment, so the spectrum is still being used. This poses a problem for Tmo, as a nationwide roll out is impossible until the government is able to spend our money to get new stuff.