Our best friends at T-Mobile are getting set to roll out 3G in New York soon --
real soon, as was
previously expected. New York will launch on May 1, to be exact, according to TmoNews.com. That's, like, tomorrow. The leaked document promises T-Mobile customers the "great call quality they've come to expect...and more network availability". The rest of the network will be rolled out in 2008 to 20 markets, including Los Angeles, Detroit, San Diego, Austin, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, Miami, and several more. As TmoNews.com points out, New Jersey and Long Island are mysteriously off the list. View all the launch cities after the break.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
New York City
Austin
NJ and Long Island
Las Vagas
Minneapolis
Miami
Dallas
Chicago
Houston
Philadelphia
Denver
Detroit
Orlando
Kansas city
Atlanta
Los Angeles
New England
Portland
Sacramento
San Diego
Seattle
Washington DC
San Francisco
Birmingham
Memphis
Tampa
Phoenix
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Aaron @ Apr 30th 2008 9:56AM
Only 4 3G handsets?
Bummer. I'm hoping there will be some more announcements of 3G winmo smartphones soon so I can ditch the Shadow.
Nick M. @ Apr 30th 2008 11:17AM
My guess is it will just be 4 phones for the initial 3G roll out/ push... and grow from there. So maybe by August there will be 6.
Abuzar @ Apr 30th 2008 1:47PM
You can always buy from other places right?
Joseph Singer @ Apr 30th 2008 6:44PM
Don't forget that T-Mobile's 3G offerings have to be on a combo of 1700/2100 Mhz which is "funkier" than what 3G does on cingulat&t.
Patrick @ Apr 30th 2008 9:56AM
good for t-mo, but aren't they *years* late to the party? is this any sort of different implementation to what at&t has or the equivalent cdma offerings from sprint and verizon?
Brian @ Apr 30th 2008 10:20AM
@Patrick
Yes, T-Mobile is very late in the US, mostly because of spectrum availability. T-Mobile doesn't have the 1900MHz spectrum to launch UMTS (which requires 5MHz spectrum blocks); the only reason AT&T can get away with it is that they are flush with spare spectrum from the Cingular/ATTWS deal. EVDO requires less spectrum.
There are also issues with the availability of AWS (1700MHz/2100MHz) UMTS devices.
Nick M. @ Apr 30th 2008 11:12AM
they may be late... but they are still cheaper plans than all the other provders.. so I'm happy.
Geir E @ Apr 30th 2008 6:10PM
If I am not mistaken, EV-DO is what is the cdma version of 3g? is there anything that compares to what is called super-3g in europe (that is HSDPA)?
Just curious.
Tim @ Apr 30th 2008 10:01AM
Maybe it wasn't a bad idea to move to Chicago after all ! The major cities always get the best stuff first, and im glad to be living here when stuff like this happens. I just hope 3G hits Chicago sooner rather than later
killucan @ Apr 30th 2008 10:07AM
yawn.
we have had 3G for years now (cologne, Germany).
Brian @ Apr 30th 2008 10:20AM
@killucan
So have we. AT&T has UMTS/HSDPA in most major metro areas, and Verizon/Sprint have EVDO nearly everywhere.
Robert @ Apr 30th 2008 10:03AM
With what speeds? 3.6 to 7.2 MBit like here in Germany???
Ray @ Apr 30th 2008 10:25AM
It says UMTS only, not HSDPA, so I guess 384kbps?
frauhottelmann @ Apr 30th 2008 10:28AM
Wow so fast??? EDGE will be faster here before they upgrade to USDPA! ^^
Shahryar @ Apr 30th 2008 10:13AM
Well, my wife's N82 just shipped so she won't be experiencing 3G for a while since that's not compatible with U.S. 3G (under the assumption that U.S. 3G is the same band as Cingular's. But I wanted to update my N76 soon and was considering an N95-3. Now, I may just have to get the N95-4 if perhaps Tmobile 3G is in the near future for us in the DC area.
palehorse @ Apr 30th 2008 10:15AM
now, if they only had a decent 3G phone to match with the service...
Chad @ Apr 30th 2008 10:46AM
They do!
A Jail-Broken iPhone....oh...wait.....never mind
Nando @ Apr 30th 2008 10:24AM
Fi-fucking-nally!
EMaster @ Apr 30th 2008 10:28AM
Wow a screenshot of streamline.... whoever took that is so fired. not like I careI no longer work there lol.
Marty @ Apr 30th 2008 10:32AM
@ Patrick... that chorus has been repeated more times than you know.
Not only that, but I guess the rumors of "rollout across the US all at one time" is out the window too.
Whatever. Too little, too late. There was a time where I was begging for 3G and paid up the ass for all this EDGE/GPRS data services. Now T-mo rolls out 3G AFTER I've realized that I have no use for data/net on my cell and decided to take off data services from my plan.
WHICH, ALLOW ME TO DIGRESS FOR A MOMENT: ANYONE WHO PAID $29.99 FOR T-MO'S DATA PLAN, GO ONLINE AND CHECK YOUR OPTIONS AGAIN. T-MO LOWERED THE PLAN TO $19.99, BUT DIDN'T TELL ANYONE OR AUTOMATICALLY SWITCH PEOPLE. THE ONLY WAY TO SWITCH IS TO DO IT YOURSELF.
For the first time as a T-mo customer, I was disappointed. They've been allowing people to overpay for a service without any notice whatsoever. This is the dirty kind of crap I expect from AT&T.
Matt @ Apr 30th 2008 12:12PM
I cannot think of a carrier out there that would send you a nice little letter with stickers and glitter on it telling you to switch your plan and stop paying them more money.
Sometimes you have to pay attention yourself.
p.s. I sell all four major carriers
Simon Waddington @ Apr 30th 2008 8:27PM
I had the same experience - but fortunately I found out about the lower data plan price several months ago. I think if I'd been willing to spend enough time chasing it I would have got some kind of refund. But I did recent get a free month of service as my contract came up - without asking for it.
Personally I find the existing Edge service good enough for 90% of surfing and email purposes - even when tethered. If they gave me more bandwidth I'd just end up streaming more stuff over the connection, and doing VoIP etc. - if I get it with no increase in price then fine, otherwise I wont bother paying for an upgrade.
Kevin S @ Apr 30th 2008 10:34AM
Why isn't Boston on this list?? C'mon T-Mo, throw us a bone here! I promise never to use the color magenta without your express permission. Just give me some decent data speed!!!
Mike @ Apr 30th 2008 10:48AM
Boston = New England... think NFL, we don't call them the Boston Patroits.
Dustin @ Apr 30th 2008 10:54AM
@Mike: hey, genius, New England is 6 STATES! That's a whole lot of room for it to possible-be or possibly-not-be boston. Why don't they just specify?
Marty @ Apr 30th 2008 10:43AM
@ Shahryar... go up a few posts and re-read about T-mo spectrums. Other US 3G phones aren't even compatible w/ T-mo's 3G. In other words, an unlocked Nokia that works w/ AT&T/Cingular is not going to work w/ T-mo. At least not right now, not until more devices come out that can do all the frequencies.
@Palehorse... RIGHT! Who the hell wants a 3G flip phone w/ limited capabilities? What would be the point?
Sami @ Apr 30th 2008 10:44AM
Finally it has been so long already.
JustJohn @ Apr 30th 2008 10:54AM
Why are people even on T-Mobile if they've not had 3G up until now?
Are they cheaper?
MBN @ Apr 30th 2008 1:20PM
Yes, much cheaper in both voice and data.
randy @ Apr 30th 2008 11:01AM
so does anyone know if a nokia 5700 handset, which works on the 2100 band, will work with tmobile's 3g service?
bachviet @ Apr 30th 2008 11:20AM
No the 5700 (band I) will not work with T-Mobile 3G (band IV). There are more T-Mobile 3G phones coming down the pipeline starting in July (SE Bella = Z780, the mysterious Nokia RM-407, SE X1???, Android phone, and etc).
I'm ready to purchase a WinMo/Android/S60v3 smartphone with T-Mobile US 3G. Hopefully when the Bella is released, the network is to be upgraded to HSDPA.
Marty @ Apr 30th 2008 11:02AM
@JustJohn
It's all relative to where you live.
Some parts of the country, T-mo is garbage, no signals.
Other parts, there is no better service.
Not just T-mo, but all carriers (for the most part, ok, I concede on AT&T).
So here in Orlando... Sprint is laughed at. We see someone with a Sprint phone, we prop the front door open cause we know they're gonna have to walk their ass outside every single time they get a call. But T-mo is outstanding here. All my friends and family have T-mo.
On top of that, T-mo has (or had) the best customer service. Back in the day (like 8 years ago) I had At&t/Cingular and there were moments where I wanted to track them down and go postal on their ass. I also experienced TONS of dropped calls w/ At&t. Problems I never had w/ T-mo.
But there's a trade off: No 3G and dumbass devices for great customer and technical service.
b33eazy @ Apr 30th 2008 12:47PM
@Marty I had sprint and I live in Orlando, Orange County,as a matter of fact, and Sprint works well. I did get rid of Sprint,but I did that because it's too pricey.
Froggy @ Apr 30th 2008 11:11AM
"sorry New Jersey" LOL. how many times has that state and city heard that before...
Screamager @ Apr 30th 2008 11:32AM
Seriously??? You still dont have 3G, even in a city like New York? I am not sure you can even buy a non-3G phone (other than a blackberry) here in Europe. Wow... What kind of internet connections do you get over there? Whats the average speed?
bachviet @ Apr 30th 2008 11:46AM
3G is not only helping on data speed but also voice since it relieves the 2G from data users who are previously connected using EDGE.
Also GSM 3G allows voice and data to be connected at the same time unlike EVDO.
Roman @ Apr 30th 2008 11:35AM
What??? You mean there's still no 3G in the States? Here in the UK every mobile provider has got a 3G/HSDPA coverage on at least 90% of the Kingdom!
Rene @ Apr 30th 2008 12:34PM
Um...hmm...
UK Area -
Total 244,820 km² (79th) | 94,526 sq mi
USA Area -
Total 9,826,630 km² [1](3rd/4th3) | 3,794,066 sq mi
It doesn't help that our 4 main carriers need to cover like 40 times the land vs. what your 5 major carriers already service, so upgrading in the UK is easy-er.
LOL, we can fit the UK and 70% of Ireland in New England alone...
New England
Area - Total 71,991.8 mi² (186,458.8 km²)
Mickel @ Apr 30th 2008 12:02PM
What 4 phones???
This UMTS network is supposed to be the fastest 3G in US.Using HSDPA on AWS.
cyberstraz @ Apr 30th 2008 12:07PM
Will the HTC TyTN work with T-Mobile's 3G?
Vicente Dominguez @ Apr 30th 2008 12:17PM
@ Screamager @ Roman @ other users that are just going to post without reading... please read the comments before posting and it wouldn't hurt to educate yourselves a little before posting about a subject.
cyberstraz @ Apr 30th 2008 12:28PM
No one is listing the specifics. They're saying that other providers are using 1900 Band. No one verified that T-Mobile is using 2100. We're just trying to verify.
Also, if T-Mobile is only going to be selling these mid-range phones to take advantage of the 3G (voice only) would a phone with 3G (data) be able to take advantage of the faster speeds before T-Mobile deploys their own 3G data phones?
ChrisM @ Apr 30th 2008 12:45PM
The lack of Long Island on the list doesn't surprise me. I'd say over 50% of Long Island still isn't covered by AT&T's 3G, which has been around for years. Long Island has more population than some states, give us the 3G love! ALL Suffolk county!
If AT&T wants people to upgrade to 3G iPhones in June, they better start expanding their service ASAP.
nin @ Apr 30th 2008 12:46PM
Hopefully San Francisco means SF Bay Area
Christian @ Apr 30th 2008 12:58PM
sadly they really mean SF not the whole bay area if they do this type of stuff. I too am hoping it's the whole bay area instead as I travel in and out of SF.
Christian @ Apr 30th 2008 12:57PM
Did they say when these cities are going to start this? I've been waiting for them to start this for a while with their plans announced way back in 2006...
Ahmed Alzayani @ Apr 30th 2008 1:14PM
3G is the next generation of our wireless network.....
3G is the next generation! people use this for years now....
HSOPA is the next-gen for UMTS
Vit @ Apr 30th 2008 1:38PM
I believe ti when I see it. There's no indication af 3G on T-Mo website
Abuzar @ Apr 30th 2008 1:47PM
ORLANDO!!!!!
Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!! Yes!!!!
Abuzar @ Apr 30th 2008 1:48PM
Damn, I needed three more.