T-mobile talks up Apple, new 3G network
T-Mobile last week gave a peek into its future plans, which will include a high-speed 3G networks in 2007, enhanced mobile e-mail options, and possibly a partnership with Apple Computer.
According to ABC News, the fourth-largest U.S. wireless carrier at a press conference on Friday said it plans to spend 4.2 billion for 120 new wireless spectrum licenses in the 1,700 and 2,100 Mhz bands, covering the entire United States.
The new spectrum will put T-Mobile ahead of Sprint and roughly on par with Verizon in terms of average spectrum in the top 100 US markets. The company said it now has an average of 52.2 Mhz spectrum, compared to Sprint's 49.8, Verizon's 53.1 and Cingular's 67.6.
During the press conference, T-mobile chief executive Robert Dotson said the new 3G network will be complemented by UMA, which lets phone calls transition between cellular and Wi-Fi to enhance indoor coverage.
Dotson also spoke quite favorably of Apple, singling out the Mac maker's efforts on the desktop as a "great precursor" of where he thinks the marketplace is headed with 3G, leading to speculation that T-Mobile, not Cingular, will host Apple's much-rumored iPhone project.
Of course, Dotson "declined to comment" about any relationship between the two companies, but went on at some length about how Apple's and T-Mobile's visions seem to be aligned, ABC reported.
"The [upcoming] Leopard operating system does an incredibly good job of integrating video, and you're starting to see the integration of voice," he said. "It is a good precursor to how this marketplace can evolve, and how you can really start making money off products and services in a mobile environment."
The T-mobile chief indicated that Mac OS X, not the iPod, is his favorite Apple product. He downplayed the importance of mobile music, video, and TV in the 3G landscape, and instead focused on user-generated content from the likes of MySpace and YouTube, e-mail, and personal information management.
As much as 30 percent of Web browsing on T-Mobile's Sidekick handhelds is "directly from MySpace," Dotson said. He added that e-mail is the number one Internet application on PCs, with 91 percent of broadband users e-mailing, only 5 percent of consumer e-mail is currently accessed in a mobile environment.
"As can be seen with Apple's new Leopard operating system, the richness of e-mail communications is just beginning to discover elements beyond the printed word, moving to dynamic and personally tailored image-rich communications," he said.
According to ABC News, the fourth-largest U.S. wireless carrier at a press conference on Friday said it plans to spend 4.2 billion for 120 new wireless spectrum licenses in the 1,700 and 2,100 Mhz bands, covering the entire United States.
The new spectrum will put T-Mobile ahead of Sprint and roughly on par with Verizon in terms of average spectrum in the top 100 US markets. The company said it now has an average of 52.2 Mhz spectrum, compared to Sprint's 49.8, Verizon's 53.1 and Cingular's 67.6.
During the press conference, T-mobile chief executive Robert Dotson said the new 3G network will be complemented by UMA, which lets phone calls transition between cellular and Wi-Fi to enhance indoor coverage.
Dotson also spoke quite favorably of Apple, singling out the Mac maker's efforts on the desktop as a "great precursor" of where he thinks the marketplace is headed with 3G, leading to speculation that T-Mobile, not Cingular, will host Apple's much-rumored iPhone project.
Of course, Dotson "declined to comment" about any relationship between the two companies, but went on at some length about how Apple's and T-Mobile's visions seem to be aligned, ABC reported.
"The [upcoming] Leopard operating system does an incredibly good job of integrating video, and you're starting to see the integration of voice," he said. "It is a good precursor to how this marketplace can evolve, and how you can really start making money off products and services in a mobile environment."
The T-mobile chief indicated that Mac OS X, not the iPod, is his favorite Apple product. He downplayed the importance of mobile music, video, and TV in the 3G landscape, and instead focused on user-generated content from the likes of MySpace and YouTube, e-mail, and personal information management.
As much as 30 percent of Web browsing on T-Mobile's Sidekick handhelds is "directly from MySpace," Dotson said. He added that e-mail is the number one Internet application on PCs, with 91 percent of broadband users e-mailing, only 5 percent of consumer e-mail is currently accessed in a mobile environment.
"As can be seen with Apple's new Leopard operating system, the richness of e-mail communications is just beginning to discover elements beyond the printed word, moving to dynamic and personally tailored image-rich communications," he said.
Comments
it ain't gonna be no freebee i can tell you that.
and they should make an option for you to pick your network and just buy a SIM card from tthe network.
Makes sense for Apple to work with the company with the highest rated customer service.
Makes sense for Apple to work with the company with the highest rated customer service.
Who? US cellular? 8)
As an example, when my wife and I moved, we wanted to change our numbers to local numbers. I was with T-mobile. I called them, and 5 minutes later I was running on a new local number.
My wife was with Cingular. After several hours and several phone calls, they finally changed her number to a new local number. Unfortunately, they also changed her sister's number to a local number (she lives in a different state) while they were at it. It took several calls to fix that. THEN, they tried to charge us for changing her sister's number AND they tried to extend the contract from the point where we had switched the number over. I called them several times and they kept saying they would fix the contract end date, but each time I called it stayed the same.
i've had verizon - they are the devil
i have tmobile - they rule.
i have tmobile - they rule.
I tried T-Mobile for a while, but where I live in southern NH their signal coverage is pretty miserable. Too many dead spots with no roaming agreements to take up the slack.
I switched from Sprint because of the piss-poor customer service (ever had to talk to "Claire"?) and was bowled over by the quality of T-mobile's customer service. Once they actually were discussing with me alternate plans I could switch to in order to save money (and no new contract).
They did that with me too.
I tried T-Mobile for a while, but where I live in southern NH their signal coverage is pretty miserable. Too many dead spots with no roaming agreements to take up the slack.
spose i have the advantge of living in a smallish country, good network coverage everywhere. mostly...
I like T-mobile a lot.
Yup T-mobile rules.
I was on Verizon for 6 years and the service sucked. Who cares if they have a ton of old school analog tower everywhere when you want GSM service.
Have been on T-mobile for 3 years now and it has been sweet. I also like the unlimited GPRS and additional Hotspot wi-fi access as needed.
I hope that everyone touting T-Mobile is right. I had them for a very short time once and found that they were in fact very helpful and nice, but the service in Colorado (USA) was unusable for me and my company.
It also helps to get a quality phone. Unfortunately most of the phones available to the US market are crap.
The Sony Ericsson Pxxx series phones rock and work great with the Mac. I've had the P800, currently use the P910 and I have a P990 on the way. 8)
Every time I am with a friend complaining about the poor reception, I pull out my P910 and see 5 bars.
...
The Sony Ericsson Pxxx series phones rock and work great with the Mac. I've had the P800, currently use the P910 and I have a P990 on the way. 8) ....
If you wanted Mac support looks like the P990 is a poor choice! :-(
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Although my experience of T-Mobile is reasonably poor (well their GSM coverage anyway) - I'm with them right now. It makes a lot of sense to be with T-Mobile who have services in place in the US, UK and Europe etc.
The iPhone won't be unlocked. Like everything Apple it will be tied to the service Apple chooses for us. It's the only way they can guarantee the End-to-End service that Apple are famous for.
iPod would not be success it is without iTunes and iTS. iPhone will be the same.
We all need to be very considerate when the first device comes out. The specs are going to be significantly lower than we'd like. Apple takes small increments in product development. Rev A products always have fewer features - later iPhones will rock though.
It also helps to get a quality phone. Unfortunately most of the phones available to the US market are crap.
In my area, T-Mobile's own coverage maps show the large coverage holes I've experienced. They're just going to have to improve coverage in my area if they want my business.
If I didn't want to have an unlocked GSM phone, I'd probably stick with Verizon. I'm not that thrilled with Verizon as a business, or their often feature-crippled phones, but when it comes to signal coverage in my area, they seem to have everyone else beat. I've got overlapping service with Cingular now (it was cheaper to pay for two cell phones for a couple of months than it was to bail out on Verizon early), and while Cingular is definitely better than T-Mobile for coverage around here, I'm still finding more dead spots than I find with Verizon.
And as an Apple shareholder, my expectation is that Mobile Me will make it easy to iChat from a Mac straight to an iPhone with video. And the iPhone will tie directly into a Mobile Me (.Mac) account for email and address book and calendar and photos and web page and RSS, etc. And with an add-on GPS, it would tie into the (rumored) mapping service with ads (from Google) for nearby services (restaurants, attractions, clubs, etc). And possibly even access to your music library stored on .Mac; which you might use once in a while to get music that you didn't already store on the 4GB iPhone.
And that would be how Apple makes some extra revenue off the phone, while the carrier makes the money off of the higher minute packages that you will buy to access it all.
By the way, I have T-Mobile. The reception is definitely not as good as Verizon, but the customer service is way better. I've had Verizon and Cingular (both Cingular and ATT wireless) and I can't stand either company's crap to get anything done.