Voice Only 3G Service At T-Mobile
May 29, 2008
We already know that T-Mobile USA is a little late to the 3G party, so it is a little comforting to hear that they’re finally getting around to launching the 3G network tomorrow.
This is according to an apparent T-Mobile internal document and it says that the initial rollout will be for New York City on May 1st.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that the internal document only makes mention of “great call quality” over the 3G network, making no mention of data. According to another internal memo dug up by the Boy Genius, the initial 3G launch is only for the yakkers in the audience. More specifically, the document says:
” 3G is the next generation of our wireless network, following our current GSM network. In this early phase of our network evolution, 3G is a new technology for carrying wireless voice calls and supporting existing data capabilities on our network. In future phases, this next generation network will power ‘high-speed’ (3G) products and services that connect customers in new and exciting ways. … Inform customers who are interested in high-speed data that the first phase of our 3G roll out supports voice only.”
Launching 3G without support for data. Good going, T-Mo.
Source:
mobilewhack.com
Response to “Voice Only 3G Service At T-Mobile” by monica.
here’s another article for you to read:
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/107615
The initial phones offered to support 3G are voice only, it’s not a network limitation, it’s a handset limitation.
As for being late to the party, it pays to be fashionably late. Rather than cutting their existing 2g spectrum in half in order to launch 3g, they bought and cleaned 3g spectrum to build and launch 3g. All that in order to keep from sacrificing the 2g network and loosing customers.
The existing 3g networks in the US are using the 2g spectrum, my nokia 6555 is WCDMA 850 1900. The tmobile has the nokia 3555 that is WCDMA 1700. I’m going to wait for the data phones to come out before I start putting them down, but first I have to wait for the 3g network.
Erick