NevilleRay
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T Mobile CTO: next iPhone chipset 'will support AWS' (updated)
T-Mobile's now the lone national player in the US telecom market that hasn't enjoyed the success of the iPhone, and we've heard on several occasions that its top brass isn't oblivious to the effect that its exclusion from Apple's graces has had on the company, going as far to say that the ball is ultimately "in Apple's court." But in a recent interview, it sounds as though T-Mo CTO Neville Ray has seen some of Apple's roadmap, and the next chipset -- the one that ideally would be included in the next iteration of the iPhone -- will be offering support for Magenta's AWS radio. If true, we'd certainly expect the carrier's bad fortunes to turn around... unless Apple chooses to keep T-Mobile out of its club regardless, which Ray mentioned was a distant possibility. If LTE is also included, the fourth-largest US carrier will still be a bit behind by simply not having the next-gen network connectivity -- although Ray did specify that it isn't impossible to deploy LTE in certain areas by repurposing spectrum -- but we have a feeling there will be plenty of people willing to forego that bullet point on the spec list in order to get their hands on an iPhone with genuine T-Mobile HSPA+ support. Update: T-Mobile gave us some nuggets of clarification on Ray's statement. Apparently he was actually referring to the fact that Apple has the option of adding AWS support when considering the current roadmap of chipsets available on the market.
T-Mobile exec downplays need for LTE, calls WiMAX 'niche'
LTE? WiMAX? T-Mobile USA's Neville Ray isn't as interested in these technologies as the competition. In an interview with BusinessWeek, the Chief Network Officer said, "we'll look towards LTE at the right point in time for us... that ecosystem is going to be much richer than the competing one from [WiMAX], which is really a niche play." A niche play, you say? Network burn! What isn't clear from the BW piece -- and it's something we're painfully curious about -- is if Ray himself used the term 4G as interchangeably as the article implies. After all, the company line is that it's already got a 4G technology in (the theoretically slower) HSPA+, as it's claimed as recently as the G2 announcement. We're guessing not, but all the same, we wouldn't hold our breath for any radical new cell towers in T-Mo's immediate future -- and we'd expect nothing less from AT&T than to continue to sneer at its use of the 4G term in its press materials.
