Interesting T-Mobile News

Looks like T-Mobile is miving forward on their VoIP offering, adding the feature to their product mix with specialized phones.

It will be interesting to see how people add this service, or use this service in combination to thier mobile phone.  No exact news on how they will be using the new spectrum they purchased.

Read more at BetaNews.

T-Mobile 3G Rollout – Media Buzz

Brighthand is reporting what I’ve talked about in the past.  T-Mobile now has enough spectrum bandwidth nationwide to proceed with their 3G rollout.

What this means to consumers is cheaper 3G options compared to Cingular, Verizon, & Sprint.  T-Mobile has always been priced more competitively than the competition, partially because of being the smallest nationwide operator, but also because of the ability to run more efficiently than the other carriers.  They have not had to carry the baggage of extremely large and complex corporate mergers of culture and technology.

Another large factor in the pricing of T-Mobile has been its “reluctance” to be on the cutting edge of wireless technology.  For example, their EDGE network has only been online for roughly a year, where Cingular’s EDGE service has been available for nearly two.  Allowing the other carriers to bled on the cutting edge, learning from their triumphs and failures, in addition to allowing time for the hardware to come down in pricing has kept T-Mobile competitive.

Will that trend continue now that the company has dropped $4.2 Billion on spectrum – though I must point out that T-Mobile has been budgeting for this spectrum auction, and had estimated a similar amount aver a year ago for Auction 66.

Only time will tell, but it’s exciting, as now all four national carriers have the spectrum to roll out 3G nationwide, and plan for next-generation 4G strategies.

Link to Link to T-Mobile USA On Track for 3G Rollout at Brighthand.com

FCC Auction 66 ends, bringing in $13.7 Billion

So the latest FCC wireless auction ends after 28 days of intense bidding.  T-Mobile did well, gaining significantly needed spectrum across the country.

T-Mobile LogoT-Mobile USA Inc. was the big spender of the auction, winning 120 licenses with bids totaling nearly $4.2 billion. The fourth-largest U.S. carrier gained spectrum across the country, including licenses in the large markets of New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. As soon as the auction closed, T-Mobile USA put out a statement saying that it will not immediately reveal its plans for the spectrum.

This is very exciting news for me as a T-Mobile subscriber.  While their EDGE data service is great, I can’t wait for 3G data speeds!

Read more at: RCRNews

Real world EDGE speeds at our new place

So I’ve yet to get the Cable service hooked up yet, and we’ve been using my MDA’s EDGE connection for Internet access. Overall, I’ve been happy with the speeds I get with my EDGE connection, one time peaking at 200kbps – quite fast compared to my old phone’s (Nokia 6600) 40kpbs.

At our new home though, I get about a peak (so far) of around 127kbps, with an upstream of 74kbps. Not too much to brag about, but right in the range that I’ve seen overall for EDGE service from T-Mobile. I can live with this quite well. This is the first real need for this type of connectivity, though I have used my MDA as a modem on many occasions, it was more of a W?BIC.

So I’ve seen the best-case speeds and the average EDGE speeds, and I am happy with the service. I’ve had mobile data service with my phones for at least 3 years, GPRS was a huge improvement over the original 9.6kbps that you could get out of the standard GSM line, and again with EDGE, it is at least a threefold improvement in speed.

Will I upgrade to a UMTS or HSDPA phone when T-Mobile provides service? Yep! The ~400kpbs of UMTS and multi-megabit speeds of HSDPA will be a great experience. Of course, we’ll have to see what the service charges will be, but at the moment, you can’t get a better deal for mobile Internet access than T-Mobile’s unlimited Internet plan ($20 – its called the BlackBerry Internet plan) and for an additional $10, you can add all their WiFi hotspots as well.

Cool stuff – can’t wait for the broadband connection though!

T-Mobile to roll out UMA in September?

I have a hard time believing this – they only went into beta a week or two ago.

Still, if its true, this would be the first commercial implementation of Unlicensed Mobile Access. This service allows subscribers to use either cellular service or WiFi service to place & receive phone calls.

With T-Mobile having such an extensive WiFi Hotspot network, in addition to supporting free access points, and in conjunction with their GSM network, would allow users to make inexpensive calls many additional locations.

Via Pocket PC Thoughts

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