T-Mobile has bragged that it will be able to roll out a cheaper 3G because it only has to content with two bands rather than three, but this article goes a little deeper than that. “What Dotson didn’t mention, though, is that T-Mobile’s new spectrum is in bands that no current phone supports — new devices will have to be developed to work in the new 1,700-MHz and 2,100-MHz bands. While many European countries have a 2,100-MHz band as well, their band is configured differently, so European 2,100-MHz devices will not be able to work well on the American version. The 1,700 and 2,100 Mhz bands also require more towers per square mile than the 850 Mhz band where Verizon and Cingular are strong.” T-Mobile USA Chief Executive Robert Dotson argued that the cost of the new handsets would have only a nominal difference in price to the current 2.5G phones.
Dotson also mentioned Apple, leading to speculation that the two companies may have plans of working together (although from the article it sounded more like T-Mobile was comparing itself to Apple to try and get some reflected coolness). “But Dotson’s favorite Apple product seems to be OS X, not the iPod. He downplayed the importance of mobile music, video, and TV in the 3G landscape, focusing instead on user-generated content in the MySpace and YouTube mode, 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…”You didn’t hear a lot of discussion about mobile TV [from T-Mobile], you didn’t hear a discussion about the next music platform; we’re not going to spend a lot of resources on the development of mobile TV in the market.”
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