“T-Mobile CEO Philipp Humm talked to Ina Fried of AllThingsD at CES this week about a variety of topics, including the iPhone,” Kelly Hodgkins reports for TUAW.
“Humm confirmed what we all assumed — T-Mobile didn’t get the iPhone because of its unique 3G technology,” Hodgkins reports. “‘The key reason we didn’t have the iPhone in the past is we are on different band than globally the market was,’ said Humm. Unlike other carriers which use the 850, 900, 1900 or 2100 MHz frequencies, T-Mobile uses the 1700/2100 MHz AWS band for its 3G.”
Hodgkins reports, “Humm is hopeful this will change, and T-Mobile will eventually get the iPhone.”
Read more in the full article here.
Yep, I am sure the iPhone 5 will include T-Mobile. The other problem is their spotty signal though. On the other hand, they do have 42 Mbps HSPA+, which has the potential to be faster than even LTE data.
True LTE, NOWHERE TO BE FOUND IN OUR COUNTRY, must have the capability to have a DL speed of 100 Mbps and HSPA+ is capped at 80+ Mbps.
Baloney. They were playing games with apple and believed that they were. On the verge of closing the deal with AT&T.
Tmobile was not serious all because of their deal with AT&T. Now they reap the consequences.
If this is really the case, why can iPhones be jail broken to work on T-Mobile??
They get the voice fine, but data is limited to EDGE speeds.
Agreed… Many people are using an iPhone on T-Mobile with no problem.
See above. Only EDGE speeds, so you’re not getting much, unless you just want to use WiFi plus the phone with EDGE for emergencies.
Because they are only using Edge (2.5G), an earlier data tech (and the original data protocol for the first iPhone). That said, there is evidence that T-Mobile is retaking some of its data band capacity in some markets to support the normal GSM 3G frequency bands. This is believed to be a first step towards making T-Mobile more iPhone-friendly.
Meanwhile, this isn’t news, unless you are surprised that water is wet…
All this said,
It’s a slow news day because Apple isn’t at CES. Of course, next Thursday is the BIG Apple announcement. We could talk about that!
AT&T has both UMTS/HSPA (3G) and GSM/EDGE (2G) deployed on 850MHz and 1900 MHz bands.
T-Mobile USA has GSM/EDGE (2G) on 1900 MHz, and UMTS/HSPA (3G) on 1700 and 2100 MHz. Some areas have UMTS/HSPA on 1700, and some on 2100. They don’t appear to a have a public list of what areas use 1700, and which use 2100.
According to Apple’s published specs, the iPhone 4 (N90) and 4S support 850, 900, 1900, and 2100 MHz for UMTS/HSPA, and 850, 900, 1800, and 1900 for GSM/EDGE.
So since the iPhone doesn’t support T-Mobile’s oddball 1700 MHz band, if you unlock it and put in a T-Mobile SIM, you’ll get 2G GSM/EDGE service in most areas, and 3G UMTS/HSPA service where it’s available on 2100 MHz. If you are in a 1700 MHz UMTS/HSPA service area, you’ll only have 2G GSM/EDGE.
That may be why some people say it works fine for them, and others say they only get 2G speeds.
T-Mobile CEO Philipp Humm comments on why T-Mobile didn’t get the iPhone –
… in the past is we are on different band than globally the market was …
– Please pass me my Babel fish.
Mr. Humm is a LIAR.
CDMA