Well, it appears T-Mobile is finally playing catch up in the data network arena.
The folks over at tmonews.com have managed to get a picture of a sign posted outside a meeting, presumably of T-Mobile execs or some such. The sign clearly states that T-mobile will be rolling out its high speed 3G network in 27 major cities across the country, with service officially on Oct 1st.
This makes T-Mobile officially the last of the big national carriers to get 3G. This is sad because other carriers have had 3G for years, and are already announcing plans for 4G data. T-mobile’s rollout by Oct only includes 27 cities, and a fuller rollout will probably take them well into 2009- But by then, I wouldn’t be surprised if some form of 4G were already here.
The irony as I blogged about here recently, is that T-Mobile was once regarded as up at the top of the data network game. Back in the days when 2G was standard, they brought us the first Blackberry with voice, the first Pocket PC phone, popular exclusives like the Sidekick and Dash (Excalibur), etc…
The other big GSM networks got EDGE (2.5G) first, and then T-mobile sorta dragged its feet into last place with that too. Now its like they’re reluctantly bringing 3G because they’re the only ones who don’t have it yet.
I was sort of hoping that they’d just skip and jump straight to 4G or something. *Sigh*
Its almost like, why bother, T-Mobile? Your network will be obsolete by the time you finish!
Maybe its just me, but I feel like the whole world has an iPhone and I don’t. Everywhere I turn, there’s another iPhone user. In fact, at my last staff meeting, two were given away just because (while cool, its not quite as awesome as Twitter giving ALL employees a new iPhones). The only thing stopping the purchase is the fact I am on a different carrier. But Congress is working on making the switch just a little bit easier.
Consumers have been able to take their phone numbers with them to another cell phone operator since late 2003. And since then millions of people have exercised their right to keep their numbers and switch to another carrier. But the process has not always been smooth. And the Senators say that if the process is burdensome or slow, it will likely deter many consumers from changing providers even when they dissatisfied. Ultimately that hurts competition and pricing for all consumers.
Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Senator Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) introduced legislation to expand number portability rules. The bill is called the Same Number Act of 2007, and it aims to help consumers keep the same phone number when leaving one voice service for another–regardless of wireless or landline. The bill also aims to expedite the number portability process because extended waiting periods for number porting could deter some consumers from making a switch.
“This legislation would require the FCC to revisit its number portability rules and extend them to all applicable voice communications services, not just telecom services. As a result, consumers will be able to take full advantage of new choices and cheaper prices as they become available,” Stevens said.
Just to make sure cost does not stand in the way of you telling your mother you love her on Mother’s Day, T-Mobile is offering free SMS all day May 13th.
For the fifth straight study, T-Mobile ranks highest when it comes to customer satisfaction in all six regions of the US (including 3 ties), providing outstanding results particularly in customer care, cost of service, and billing. Verizon Wireless is tied for first in three of the six regions.
Study results by region are:
Northeast: T-Mobile
Mid-Atlantic: T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless (tie)
Southeast Region: Alltel, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless (tie)
North Central Region: AT&T, T-Mobile, US Cellular, and Verizon Wireless (tie)
Once again two worlds that are part of my life that I never thought would collide have collided. As many of you in the cell phone industry probably do not know the East Coast United States has recently lost 70% of its commercial bee population, with the West Coast not far behind those numbers to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).
In other words, beekeepers are coming back to their hives only to find that during the winter some of them have just up and disappeared.
I only know this because my father and I are beekeeping hobbyist and some people very close to me are professional beekeepers. Id love to hear their thoughts on this :-).
Well, apparently one theory has attributed the mysterious occurrence (which has devastating effects on our agriculture by the way since bees are key to pollination) to cell phone and cell phone towers.
A limited study at Landau University has found that bees refuse to return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby….Dr George Carlo, who headed a massive study by the US government and mobile phone industry of hazards from mobiles in the Nineties, said: “I am convinced the possibility is real.”
This, by the way, in a very high school policy debate fashion allows people to make claims like some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world’s harvests fail.
The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees’ navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up.
The article then also goes on to point out the other possible dangers of mobile phones in terms of cancer and mens sperm count, but the latter is a different type of pollination concern, isn’t it?
I was watching TV last night and much to my shock a Cingular commercial came on. I must say, I was pretty confused, seeing how one of the biggest “de-branding†campaigns began this past Monday, converting Cingular to AT&T.
From what I have heard, AT&T will not be resurrecting “AT&T Wireless,†but instead will call service formally known as Cingular, “wireless service from AT&T.†They will also be dropping Cingular’s “raising the bar†slogan and morphing the logo into an orange version of the AT&T globe. AT&T has not released the budget for these efforts, but I can say that a campaign last year to promote AT&T as the new brand name of SBC Communication cost about $1 billion.
Well, its official. With AT&T’s recent acquisition of BellSouth last Friday the company officially re-entered the mobile playing field being that it now also owns the Cingular brand name. So things have come full circlle (and in not so many years). It was not that long ago that Cingular purchased AT&T Wireless. Those customers who are still holding onto their AT&T SIM cards (also know as Cingular Blue) can either breath a sigh of relief or expect 10x more confusion as the effects of this deal begin to play out.
But this means big things for AT&T which can now try an enter the “triple play” offerings that are so popular with companies like Time Warner and Verizon. AT&T, I predict, will start offering great rates for people to have their cell phone, landline and cable (or something else) all on one bill.
The merger also allows them to play up the convergence game in new and exciting ways.
As a Cingular user myself I eagerly await.
I guess the Cingular store in my Neighborhood does not have to take down the AT&T sign that still hangs above it! Ha!
Well, its official. With AT&T’s recent acquisition of BellSouth last Friday the company officially re-entered the mobile playing field being that it now also owns the Cingular brand name. So things have come full circlle (and in not so many years). It was not that long ago that Cingular purchased AT&T Wireless. Those customers who are still holding onto their AT&T SIM cards (also know as Cingular Blue) can either breath a sigh of relief or expect 10x more confusion as the effects of this deal begin to play out.
But this means big things for AT&T which can now try an enter the “triple play” offerings that are so popular with companies like Time Warner and Verizon. AT&T, I predict, will start offering great rates for people to have their cell phone, landline and cable (or something else) all on one bill.
The merger also allows them to play up the convergence game in new and exciting ways.
As a Cingular user myself I eagerly await.
I guess the Cingular store in my Neighborhood does not have to take down the AT&T sign that still hangs above it! Ha!
RCR News is reports on a recent ruling made by the U.S Copyright office. “The purpose of the software lock appears to be limited to restricting the owner’s use of the mobile handset to support a business model, rather than to protect access to copyrighted work itself,†said Marybeth Peters, register of copyrights.”
This means that mobile-phone subscribers beginning Dec. 1 can keep their handsets to use on other wireless networks when they change cellular operators and now have legal precedence for it.
However, “While we are still reviewing the decision, it is clear that the order does not prevent carriers from locking handsets—it only removes a legal tool carriers have used to enjoin persons who unlock the handset without the carrier’s consent,” said Joe Farren, a spokesman for CTIA, the national cell-phone carrier association.
One little blurb, with huge implications for the industry…
Well, it appears T-Mobile is finally playing catch up in the data network arena. 
