Hmm, here is a bit of interesting news. Reuters is reporting that T-Mo is trying to find a way to boost its spectrum capacity. Within this goal, the company is considering forming a joint venture with Clearwire. According to Robert Dotson, the chief executive of T-Mobile USA, the company is “looking for additional spectrum… there are a number of different options we look at, (we) have been talking with cable companies, with Clearwire,”
The big magenta does not believe the national broadband plan, recently forwarded to congress by the FCC, will be of help in its goal. Dotson also responded to a question about a merger with Sprint, “What you never want to do is take one company that is going through challenges and take another company going through challenges” and put them together. Interestingly, Clearwire is Sprint’s big partner in building out a national WiMax network. T-Mobile has committed to bringing Long Term Evolution to market, a technology which is supposed to compete with WiMax. Because of the differences in next generation technology, I do not really see this happening, but we will have to wait and see. What do you think? Tell us your thoughts in the comments!
T-Mobile has announced that it has joined WaveMarket’s Veriplace Cloud Location Platform Initiative. This initiative will provide developers of mobile apps and services with APIs to enable new geo-location features. Currently, three of the the four biggest carriers (T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T) in the country are part of this group. From everything I have read on their site, it seems that in the very near future we will see some great, mind-blowing location-based apps come out of this. Can’t wait! Way to go T-Mo!
Wow, quite a bit of G1 news this evening! Well, it’s official, T-Mobile has started rolling out their Voice Plus Beta program for G1 owners. If you signed up for the beta, you should be receiving an e-mail very shortly to let you know that the program is now available to you. We should warn you, to install the application you will need to update the G1’s software and fully wipe the device, so make sure you back up your data! How many of you signed up for the beta? Are you excited to use it? Let us know in the comments below!
Call Divert: Carve out a little peace and quiet by sending selected numbers straight to voicemail without ringing your phone.
Call Defer: Let callers know you’re busy and schedule a convenient time for you to call them back. Send them a text message that acknowledges their call and that you will respond at a later time.
Visual Voicemail: Easily manage your voicemail! View a list of who left a voicemail, with the time of the message and its length. Choose which to listen to now and which to review later.
City ID: Get more information about the calls you receive. The city and state information of incoming calls is displayed.
Well, it looks like T-Mobile delivered on its promise of releasing an OTA(Over-The-Air) update for G1 users by their self-imposed deadline of March 15th. Even though this update only brings forth an improvement in call quality, it’s nice to see that is was able without issue; unlike the experience Motorola Cliq and Droid Eris users suffered. If you haven’t seen the update yet, you should be seeing it very soon. So, the next question is will the G1 get another update? Android 2.1, here we come? Time will tell, but we hope so!
Attention Motoblur fans: More pictures of the Motorola Cliq XT (also known as the Motorola Zeppelin) continue to surface. The photos above detail the Cliq XT in all its glory with Motoblur, LED flash camera, and a 3.1 inch screen. For those who don’t know, the Cliq XT will run Android 1.5 and be both WIFI and GPS equipped. Unlike its brother, the Motorola Cliq, the Cliq XT will not feature a keyboard. The handset will be touchscreen only and feature a new keypad called Swype. The handset is rumored to be launching on March 10th. Oh yeah, the face of the phone and the area outside the trackpad are also touch sensitive! From the look of things, this looks to be a darn good handset with quite a few possibilities for developers. So, T-Mobile fans, will you be getting this phone? Let us know in the comments.
Based in no small part to the comments posted on blogs everywhere, including yours truly that have followed the news Deutsche Telekom might IPO or possibly spinoff its US division. Interestingly enough, readers on almost every blog/news outlet that posted this article are tossing around the notion that Google should consider purchasing T-Mobile. Google, having released its Nexus One and having expanded its Google Voice offering is clearly interested in the telecom industry. However, is Google a suitor T-Mobile would even consider? Should consider? More importantly, would the government allow it? Google has its fair share of detractors regarding its size, privacy issues and its sudden expansion into almost everything internet related. Nevertheless, let us be honest for a minute, Google is not thinking about today or tomorrow, they are thinking about tomorrow a year from now, especially in respect to technology and their investments. I cannot even pretend to know what sort of huge undertaking this would be if such a deal were to piece itself together. For the record, this is complete speculation, there are no hints whatsoever that T-Mobile is actually for sale or that Google has even heard of yesterdays Wall Street Journal report.
I bring this up, not just because of the comments I have read but also because of a Gerson Lehrman Group, report that says it makes sense for Google to buy T-Mobile. However, it is thin on information and even thinner on reasons why…but the fact that the article was written shows that people are starting to think of what a T-Mobile sale could look like. I mean let us just placate these rumors for a moment. Imagine Google suddenly has 33 million Google Voice customers. What is to stop them from giving away their phones ad-supported? Would people really go for phones that are free, but inundated with ads every time they make a phone call, or go to browse the web. Free sounds great in theory, but there is a price for that freedom and speaking frankly, I’d MUCH rather pay for a phone and not deal with ads than receive something for free than view an ad for a watch company every time I go to browse the web.
Therefore, for the moment, this is all rumor, speculation and a little fantasy. I do not want to see T-Mobile go by the wayside and I do not think any of our dear readers do either. That being said, if the wheels are turning somewhere, Google might be using their bright minds and wondering if this is a chance to begin their global takeover.
As it stands, I’ll all but worn out from the rumors regarding T-Mobile and any number of arranged marriages parent company Deutsche Telekom might be considering. Whether it’s Sprint, MetroPCS or the guy who lives down the block, rumors regarding a merger/buyout have been steady in recent months. According to an article at xchangemang, Deutsche Telekom is set to announce “Strategie 2.0” in early 2010, which will “hightlight further partnerships for its T-Mobile units and more.” Of course, this could mean European units and the US branch or one without the other. The article does mention the rumors regarding T-Mobile and Sprint as evidence that Deutsche Telekom will “marry off its divisions when necessary.”
Speaking to German magazine Der Spiegel, Deutsche Telekom CEO Rene Obermann stated “I still see good growth prospects in the United States, particularly in the area of mobile internet…we want to utilize those.” While what actual utilization he is referring to remains unclear, what is becomingly increasingly clear is that T-Mobile wants to turn around its US branch sooner rather than later.
UPDATE 2: Via twitter, T-Mobile reports all services are restored: We are pleased to report that we have fixed the equipment malfunction. Full service has been restored. We apologize for the inconvenience
Reports are coming in of a possible T-Mobile outage. One of our connects filled us in with the details and it looks like subscribers in the Southeastern region are mostly affected. If you can recall, the last time T-Mobile had one of these outages, both Data/Calling features were down. Most of the reports we have received include a mix of both data and calling features being affected. Could this possibly have something to do with the HSPA 7.2Mbps upgrade that T-Mobile will be rolling out before the end of this year?!? I sure hope so!
Are your calling/data features working? Let us know in the comments!
UPDATE 1: T-Mobile is aware of the situation and has their “Rapid Response Teams” working on the problem. They have identified the problem as an “Equipment Malfunction”…HSPA 7.2Mbps anyone? Service has been restored to the majority of subscribers, with the exception of some customers in Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia which may still be experiencing service disruptions.
Official statement from T-Mobile below:
Some T-Mobile customers in the Southeastern United States and Puerto Rico experienced intermittent service degradation for voice and data services earlier today. T-Mobile has identified the equipment malfunction and service has been restored for the majority of customers. Some customers in Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia may still be experiencing service disruptions while T-Mobile continues to work to restore service as quickly as possible. Again, we apologize for any inconvenience to impacted customers in the region.
Let me just preface this post with a total rumor disclaimer, to be read only with serious grains of salt.
That being said, information has been passed along to me in a very James Bond type way from a trusty ninja who has yet to lead me astray. The information contains detail regarding the so called “Google phone.” According to this super ninja, magenta has landed the “Google Phone,” aka codename “Passion” (which we believe to be the HTC Passion, but again thats just the codename, but it makes sense) project with an expected launch in the first two weeks of January. One important thing yet to be determined is whether or not this is exclusive to T-Mobile or if they will just “support” it??? I’m hoping for the former, I’m sure you all are too!
Some lingering questions remain, such as what will the price be? Will there be any kind of a subsidy or is that just wishful thinking? Will Google only sell this product? Will this be offered with the recently launched standard Even More/Even More Plus rate plans? What about the rumors regarding VoiP service on the Google phone? Questions are abundant and we are just in the preliminary stages of gathering info from our sources, so we’ll be updating info as we can get it. For the moment, we hope there is truth to the notion that the Google phone successfully landed in the T-Mobile network, as it would be a huge win for T-Mobile.
Let us reiterate, this is total rumor at this point but we have it on good word, so if we’re right, terrific; if we aren’t, well bah humbug.
Saschasegan of PCMag is one of my favorite twitter contacts and I came across an article written yesterday discussing Open Source and what intrigued me were the closing paragraphs. He’s made no bones about being celebratory over T-Mobile’s Even More/Even More Plus plans and the way T-Mobile has attempted to change the rate plan game in the wireless industry. The reason to bring this forward is Sascha’s notion of how T-Mobile should “flirt with the geeks to boost its profile, attracting developers and creative types.” As I read through that, I thought that’s a terrific idea, why wouldn’t T-Mobile want to attract those individuals who influence opinion based on the apps and products they develop? The geeks and creative types shape the industry these days with App Stores being all the rage, so why wouldn’t T-Mobile want to put some muscle behind this?
To support his claim, Sascha offers evidence in the form of the N900 and its T-Mobile based AWS 3G bands. Claiming T-Mobile should sell unsubsidized N900’s to move further move away from the current, loathed carrier model. T-Mobile would continue to differentiate itself as a carrier thinking outside the box. T-Mobile needs a “leg up” and while their new plan offerings certainly hope to give them a boost, attracting a more data friendly customer would serve to give them a much needed push for their public relations. Phone Geeks shout from the roof tops and the more yelling the better, magenta needs it.
