4G shocker! T-Mobile USA boss talked to LTE wholesaler earlier this year
By Chris Ziegler 
posted May 5th 2010 1:19AM
posted May 5th 2010 1:19AM
Clearwire isn't the only American company building a carrier-independent (if you can call majority ownership by Sprint "carrier-independent") 4G network, you see -- and it would certainly behoove T-Mobile to investigate options that let it stay on a more GSM-aligned path for its next-gen network than WiMAX would, right? That might be where Harbinger Capital Partners comes into play, a group that recently bought up a bunch of satellite and terrestrial spectrum with the intention of creating a wholesale LTE network into which companies -- companies like T-Mobile, for instance -- could buy. Indeed, Financial Times is saying that T-Mobile USA chief Robert Dotson chatted with Harbinger recently about partnership opportunities, seemingly right around the same time that he talked to Clearwire. Clearly, it'd seem that T-Mobile's US division needs to decide very, very quickly how it's going to handle the 4G transition, lest it get caught behind the very same 8-ball it found itself battling in the 3G race; then again, pushing 21Mbps HSPA+ as aggressively as it has been the last few months might just keep it going for another few years. Fast data is fast data, after all.
@oxymoreon Exactly! I love how people automatically and conveniently forget about that. I guess they just want to believe that to make their own company seem "superior" when in fact it can't even handle the data flow that millions of iPhone users are capable of. sad really. T-Mobile ftw.
I laugh my ass off every time I see "Shocker!" in a headline. Can you make it a tag?
And can you make the Engadget Show more like Access Hollywood?
@Snake Robot Podium
http://www.engadget.com/tag/shocker
also, please see http://www.engadget.com/tag/awesome
@Joseph L Flatley
Oh, well whaddya know? I just assumed there wan't one because It's not on this post.
@Snake Robot Podium
II,l
I was going to dump ATT this month, pay the ETF to get out of my iPhone contract, but I think I'm going to put up with the poor service until the end of the year and see what the market looks like for phones and services. I'd really like to switch to T-Mobile because they are the only mobile company that hasn't somehow screwed me (because I haven't had them).
would be nice if they had 3g in all the places where they have voice and data coverage first. seems like tmo is just falling further and further behind everyone. i gotta admit, their voice call quality is solid in my area and their price is nice. it's just their 3g has so limited coverage. the world is moving ahead with faster data requirements and tmo just can't keep up. i wouldn't be surprised if they folded or get bought out within a few years if they keep at this pace. i, for one, am bailing.