BathOS: We've heard of it. Your mobile phone works while you are bathing
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T-Mobile goes 3G in USA
T-MOBILE is expected to make an announcement that it will provide a 3G service on December 6.
The dark satanic rumour mill, which we turned yesterday, has come up with a pretty good bet on the date from a Washington State INQ reader.
He called T-Mobile from Kirkland, which is between the lair of the Vole and the old VoiceStream HQ in Factoria, Belleveue, wanting to know when T-Mobile was releasing 3G products.
A T-Mobile spokesperson told him that an announcement about 3G availability in his area would be on or before 6 December 2007.
She cited an internal document announcing the rollout.
It seems that there will be two technical choices available for punters. There will be the existing 1900MHz in use with ATT or introduce HSDPA 2100 to the US. The latter could make existing US 3G+ phones incompatible with its shiny new network.
However there are also hints that T-Mobile will use the Nokia N95-3 or the N82 as it currently bundles EDGE with existing voice plans at no additional charge.
T-Mobile has been a bit of an also ran in the 3G market because of its German roots. 'National security' problems, including the fact that the outfit is less keen to help the Department of Homeland security in its terrorist sweeps, have apparently locked it out of the spectrum acquisition. This has let AT&T to build its 3G customer base at the T-Mobile's expense. µ
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tmo-usa's datacenter in Bothell flooded in our recent record rainstorm...I guess the 3g announcement document was on one of the servers. 

news yesterday of the Nokia 6263 on tmo is like so much Brighton rock candy-the image is already fading, and I wonder if there is any 'there' there.

hey, maybe they are nice people...but as a customer I've now been officially woofed by the Fredo of the wireless syndicate. Neither loyalty nor omertà remain. att 3g is looking better every day, and the n95-3 is $550 and falling...

neal
Tmobile did carry the nokia N-90 but it was only sold through ritz camera and comp usa for a brief period but was sold under the tmobile name, not as an unlocked device.

Yes tmobile was the big winner for the spectrum auction and it is 1700MHz. The Samsung T639 is able to use 3G on 1700 and so will the Nokia 6263 launching 12/05/07. Both both will only be using 3G for voice service, not data. Whenever tmo gets the ok from the govt that the spectrum is clear(the bovt has till 2010 to clear the spectrum!!) so they can turn the service on. They already have equipment in place in major markets, its just not turned on.

The comment about Tmobile picking Sony and Nokia for 3G is refering to network equipment, towers, servers, etc. Not handsets.

And any 3G tests going on on the west coast would be the home state of tmobile, Washington, not Cali.
this is also nearly a year old but fingers nokia and sony-ericsson as backbone equipment suppliers to tmo usa:

T-Mobile USA picks Nokia, Ericsson for 3G

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/112706-t-mobile-usa-picks-nokia-ericsson.html

maybe there's hope for us nokia users after all.
maybe a big winner but still frozen out. I just found a Sep 07 piece at rcrnews.com that points toward the 1700MHz solution:

http://www.rcrnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070923/SUB/70923013/1021/rss01

so far no other tmobile customers have published confirmation that I can find. It's either quiet news or crafty marketing retention on their part.

n
T-Mobile hasn't been locked out of spectrum acquisition. They were the big winners by far last year. The trouble is that they can't get government agencies off their new bandwidth.
tea leaves also point to tmobile us using 1700MHz 3G with the recent addition of the Samsung SGH-T639 to their lineup. 

the rep also said she didn't have more info about the shiny new network but that any rep could respond to 3G inquiries by quoting the internal document. She knew nothing about new handsets. 

IMO 1700 would be last choice because 2100 is already a world standard. It would be odd, but if you're number four in the pecking order you might take whatever frequencies you can get.
servus nick,

a few clarifications:

t-mobile usa may have tested many frequencies but final spec is not yet publicised. the n95-3 and N82 were quoted as references for two 3G standards, 1900 and 2100. It seems unlikely they would share frequencies with attt on 1900, so 2100 may or may not be used.

there has never been any n-series at tmoblie usa, period, despite demand. any subscriber who buys their own can use EDGE included in a plan much cheaper than att--nokia has a small fraction of the us market and I don't expect to see either of their flagship phones on any carrier here. 

yes that's what the rep told me. the part about at&t taking advantage of their special relationship is shorely tea leaves.

: ) 

from the lighter side of the rumor mill,

neal