HTC Desire with North American 3G graces FCC with its presence

Rumors of a June 8 launch of Telus' HTC Triumph -- a rebranded version of the Desire, seemingly -- came and went without a trace, but now, we've got another reason to think that the model's launch might be just around the corner. Basically, an HTC device with model code PB99220 just got FCC approval with = WCDMA on bands I, II, and V, which would make it fit for use on Bell, Telus, Rogers, and AT&T (plus some European support thrown in for good measure). The original Desire was numbered PB99200 (the Nexus One was in the PB991x0 range), and HTC's shtick is to recycle these codes for different variants of a particular model by changing only the second-to-last digit. We don't have any current intel to suggest this is going anywhere but Telus, but hey -- with AT&T opening up its doors to higher-end Android gear with the Captivate, it could happen, right?

[rmbrown09 Posted Jul 7th 2010 4:23PM]

YIPEEE
NOT

[Wjackson25 Posted Jul 7th 2010 4:30PM]

@rmbrown09

Evo.

[n8equalsd Posted Jul 7th 2010 4:31PM]

@rmbrown09
HIGH RANKED
NOT

[rmbrown09 Posted Jul 7th 2010 4:32PM]

@n8equalsd THIS SUIT IS BLACK
NOT

[JammySTB Posted Jul 7th 2010 5:30PM]

@rmbrown09

This suit is NOT black.

[Dig Deep Posted Jul 7th 2010 6:07PM]

@rmbrown09

Why NOT? You don't like Americans to have options?...

This is looking sweet. Now if the Dell Streak has the ATT 3G bands this might be a tough decision.

[Slick Posted Jul 7th 2010 4:24PM]

About damn time that phone got over here. I believe that was one of the first phones HTC said would get 2.2 if I'm not mistaken...

[Inect Posted Jul 7th 2010 4:27PM]

I hope it comes to Canada and bell.

[Dadu Posted Jul 7th 2010 4:28PM]

I've been using my Desire for about 2 months now here in Europe, and it has been perfect! Good to see it become availible to more people!

[LANjackal Posted Jul 7th 2010 4:31PM]

Hmmm ... 1) The Desire's relatively old 2) AT&T's Android handsets are locked down.

*yawns*

[WillSmith Posted Jul 7th 2010 4:31PM]

would be nice to see it on at&t

[Doh Posted Jul 7th 2010 4:54PM]

Why do you keep teasing AT&T customers with this phone? They already said it is for Telus, US Celluar and Celluar South.

[aschettler Posted Jul 7th 2010 8:41PM]

@Doh So unlock it!

[slymi Posted Jul 7th 2010 4:56PM]

PhoneArena.com has had the Desire listed as an upcoming phone for AT&T for a while but the date says June. This would round out the five android phones in the first half of the year from Motorola (Backflip), Dell (Aero, Streak), and HTC (Aria, Desire/Triumph). Obviously they are a bit late but better late than never.

[Schmid7y Posted Jul 7th 2010 4:58PM]

Nexus One, HTC Incredible, and now this? We need more of the same phone.

[DocDoom Posted Jul 7th 2010 5:13PM]

The HTC Desire is a slight upgrade from the Nexus One, right?

[treats Posted Jul 7th 2010 5:50PM]

@DocDoom

No, it's the exact same guts, screen with a slightly different form factor, HTC Sense UI, optical track pad and no duel mic for noise canceling.

Also physical buttons vs touch at the bottom.

[Kleptomaniac Posted Jul 7th 2010 6:03PM]

@treats
It also has more RAM.

[aks Posted Jul 7th 2010 5:15PM]

Please tell me that the HTC Desire is coming to AT&T...I haven't found a single post on Engadget which corroborates this info.

[dfresh Posted Jul 7th 2010 5:19PM]

@aks
There is no evidence. Unfortunately if a phone passes with AT&T bands, it doesn't necessarily mean it coming to Big Blue. But, we can keep our fingers crossed.

[Smarty2600 Posted Jul 7th 2010 5:18PM]

The article said it was WCDMA bands, isn't that more like verizon since ATT is GSM bands.

[bustafone Posted Jul 7th 2010 5:31PM]

@Smarty2600 WCDMA=GSM

[Smarty2600 Posted Jul 7th 2010 5:41PM]

@bustafone
Thanks for the clear up.

[hellfroze Posted Jul 7th 2010 5:29PM]

Confusingly, that's not the case! WCDMA is the type of 3G technology used by AT&T and T-Mobile here in the U.S. It is a variant of UMTS and is often used interchangeably. So thus, while AT&T and T-Mobile are known as GSM carriers for their voice/1&2G networks, their 3G uses WCDMA.

Verizon and Sprint, on the other hand are known as CDMA networks for their voice network but their 3G network uses something commonly known as EVDO (or sometimes CDMA2000).

The people who named these things were engineers and probably thought they were being very precise with their naming. But it sure makes for mass confusion!

Hope this helps!

Refs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WCDMA, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EVDO

[Smarty2600 Posted Jul 7th 2010 5:42PM]

@hellfroze
Wow how strange thanks as well.

[hellfroze Posted Jul 7th 2010 7:28PM]

@Smarty2600

( T_T) I'm *positive* I hit reply to your post above....

[dfresh Posted Jul 7th 2010 6:48PM]

I wonder if AT&T was planning on releasing this by now but was held up due to the AMOLED screen shortages?! Only time will tell.

[omegafox Posted Jul 7th 2010 6:56PM]

Releasing this on AT&T would be nice for those who want a Nexus One but can't afford the unsubsidized price for it. Though they'd be sacrificing some of Android’s coolest features since AT&T will get their dirty paws on the OS and gimp it like the others.

[hellfroze Posted Jul 7th 2010 7:27PM]

@omegafox

That's why I'm wishing this phone would come out unlocked/unbranded. I don't care if it was free from AT&T, I'd rather pay $600 for a device untouched by those bastards. I just need 850/1900 straight from the manufacturer (^_^ ).

[omegafox Posted Jul 7th 2010 7:45PM]

@hellfroze That's exactly why I bought the AT&T N1 over any of the AT&T branded Android phones. Vanilla Android without any bloatware, ability to install apps outside the android market (like swype), and the full Google experience that they intended us to have. I'm very happy with it. Plus, it has the 2100 WCDMA band and it's unlocked so I can pop in a Softbank sim card the next time I visit Japan. （´・ω・｀）

But yeah, if AT&T releases this one subsidized I could see them locking features out to "protect their customers."

[hellfroze Posted Jul 7th 2010 7:57PM]

@omegafox

I have bad luck - I was waiting on the Xperia X10 and just recently started to give up on it and lean towards the N1... and now this news makes me feel like I can wait a little longer.. but then, I'm sure something else will come up ( T_T)

[omegafox Posted Jul 7th 2010 8:48PM]

@hellfroze
That sucks. D: Well, worst case scenario you can find a AT&T band Nexus One on ebay. I don't think Google sells them anymore. If you're lucky, there might be unused ones on ebay. Or you can see what happens with this phone.

Never lose hope. ^_^

[dfresh Posted Jul 7th 2010 8:56PM]

@omegafox
I just went to the Nexus One page and it brought me to the credit card page before I closed it. I think you can still order one.

[omegafox Posted Jul 7th 2010 9:01PM]

@dfresh I see. That's good to hear. I was responding to these comments from my N1 so I was too lazy to check. =p

[pika2000 Posted Jul 7th 2010 7:40PM]

Oh people, just buy the Nexus One, google will ship it overnight to you for free. Plus you'll get 2.2 with tethering.

[hellfroze Posted Jul 7th 2010 7:56PM]

@pika2000

Google doesn't sell the Nexus One direct anymore...

http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/14/google-changes-nexus-one-plans-will-stop-selling-handsets-onlin

It's kinda silly that their page for it (http://google.com/phone) doesn't reflect this but insteads gives you a meaningless error...

[aschettler Posted Jul 7th 2010 8:47PM]

@hellfroze Worked when I went through it. Didn't continue on to buy the phone, but it will still let me go through and pick out a phone and continue to check-out. All you have to do is click "Compatible with 3G on AT&T (U.S.) & these wireless providers in Canada" under "Phone only."

[24hourpartypal Posted Jul 7th 2010 10:36PM]

@pika2000
Desire also has tethering.. I also prefer the Desire's look and the optical trackpad + the extra RAM always helps (albeit it's not that much more)

[hellfroze Posted Jul 8th 2010 4:14AM]

@aschettler

Odd, that's what I'd been doing periodically for the past month or so and it always gives me an error...

"Ooops

We're sorry, but we are unable to serve your request at this time.

Please try back in a few minutes."

I don't even know why I try since I *thought* that news article I linked basically confirmed Google wasn't selling it online anymore...

[pika2000 Posted Jul 8th 2010 4:27AM]

@hellfroze
Google is still selling it. Note that the google N1 purchasing website didn't work for me either when I used firefox, giving me errors. I tried Safari, and the purchase went through without a hitch. Not sure why.

[hellfroze Posted Jul 9th 2010 2:08AM]

@pika2000

Wow, see now *that's* fascinating. I've been using Firefox, my usual browser whenever I've checked and have only seen that error.

Just tried in Chrome - no error (-__- )

Thanks for the tip~

[Inspector Gadget80 Posted Jul 7th 2010 9:39PM]

I hope AT&T picks this one up. Cause my Upgrade is August 15th. I'm dying for a new phone right now. I just hope AT&T is out their listening to us that doesn't have the iPhone 4 will get this cause it will be very munch appreciated

[lcw Posted Jul 8th 2010 8:57PM]

Engadget - PLEASE stop saying "North American 3G" when clearly it doesn't include ALL NA 3G... T-Mo AWS 1700 (aka band IV) is clearly not mentioned in your post...