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BlackBerry Pearl 3G gets FCC clearance again, this time with T-Mobile 3G
Last time we went down this road, the Pearl 3G was earning its approvals on WCDMA 850 / 1900, meaning AT&T, Rogers, Bell, and Telus were all theoretically ready to roll. This time, it's the AWS version getting clearance -- in both 20- and 14-key flavors, no less -- giving T-Mobile USA along with Canada's WIND and Mobilicity everything they'd need to launch RIM's most consumer-friendly model. We still don't have confirmation either from T-Mobile or AT&T as to what their plans are for this thing, but at least we know we've got some legal hardware ready at this point.
T-Mobile 3G is live in Vegas, baby
That's right, kids, T-Mobile launched 3G data in Vegas this morning. The 1700MHz AWS 3G network went live for phones that can hit the UMTS 3G data stream, and if your phone is one of those, you may want to look for the pretty little icon and start doing some Intertron browsing. T-Mobile still expects to hit another 20 markets this year (along with some new handsets), so if you're not in Sin City, be patient -- 3G is coming.
Forget the "A" -- Motorola's MOTORZR V3s is AWS capable
At this point, we're simply running out of metaphors for the egregious ways in which Motorola is abusing the industrial design of the original RAZR. Yes, Moto, we get it, it was a game-changing phone -- in 2004. Heck, we'll even give it a free pass for 2005 and 2006. But a new one in 2008? Seriously? Sure enough, the new V3s variant rocks out with CDMA support on the 800, 1900, and 1700MHz bands, making this the first RAZR of any sort to support AWS. Cricket just launched its first AWS phone, so we wouldn't be surprised to see this one land over there, too. Oh wait, our bad, Motorola did change one thing about this phone: the "A" has been dropped from the name. The manual calls out the V3s as the "MOTORZR," possibly in preparation for a broad new marketing campaign that's virtually identical to the old, but with even fewer vowels. Your guess is as good as ours.
Nokia E90 hits FCC with lots of 3G bands -- destination T-Mobile?
Wait up just a second, let us get this straight: after years of teasing Americans with 3G smartphone after sweet 3G smartphone -- none of which packed even a lick of compatibility on US bands -- Nokia's going to rock its newest undisputed king of the hill, the E90, with every band we could possibly hope for? Of course, we don't want to count our chickens 'fore they're hatched lest we get fooled again, but the presence of Nokia's latest QWERTY-based Communicator device in the FCC's trusted hands sporting WCDMA on the 850, 1700, and 1900MHz bands is a very promising sign, indeed. As a refresher, T-Mobile will be launching its WCDMA network this year -- the last of the four national carriers to go 3G -- on the freshly-minted 1700MHz band, leaving future users without much of a handset selection from which to choose (as in, zero devices so far and few on the roadmap). But hey, with phones like this seemingly sitting in T-Mobile's pipeline, that's just fine by us.
T-Mobile to announce 3G plans soon?
According to an article published late yesterday in eWeek, T-Mobile is expected to hold a press conference on Friday where the company will supposedly announce its first foray into UMTS, finally catching up with its rivals on the 3G bandwagon. However, assuming these rumors are true, T-Mobile will allegedly announce UMTS and/or HSDPA on paired 1700MHz and 2100MHz bands -- part of the spectrum that it snatched up just a few weeks ago. But despite a relatively quick announcement, Phil Redman, a Gartner analyst, says that it will take T-Mobile a year and half to roll out UMTS service nationally. Even still, given that a small number of Engadget editors are T-Mobile subscribers, we can't wait to really feel the difference between the existence we're ekeing out on EDGE and that new UMTS or HSDPA über-hotness.
