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T-Mobile USA helped pioneer Android in the arms of mobile fans the world over – starting with the United States of course. But despite Android’s overwhelming success and T-Mobile USA’s headstart on adoption, the carrier still hasn’t thrived the way some had thought/hoped. As a result, rumors of a sale or spinoff have persisted.
Rene Obermann, Chief Executive of parent company Deutsche Telekom AG, put those rumors to rest several days ago by saying his company was committed to the continued success of T-Mobile USA. He also deflected the idea that a merger with another carrier such as Sprint was a possibility.
If you ask me, this is great news. Competition is healthy and right now we’ve only got 4 “major” options in the United States. A merger with Sprint would be awkward since the technology bases seem to clash (GSM/CDMA). A purchase by Verizon or AT&T would create an entity that overwhelmingly dominates the rest in carriers and again, Verizon has that technology clash issue.
Would another 3rd party NOT currently in the USA accept T-Mobile USA’s current position and take it off Deutsche Telecom’s hands? How about a cable operator? Doubtful.
I don’t see T-Mobile USA going anywhere in the near future and I think the statements made to the WSJ were more than just PR yammering. Just in case you didn’t get the reference… T-Mobile USA where you going? NOWHERE (nsfw)!
Good Thing
i definatley agree t-mobile has got to improve their handsets like come on you have to find a way to catch up with sprints EVO
Also
FIRST
what do u mean good thing ?
If you want to see more competition, than you have to ask the FTC to investigate:
A) Why Sprint won’t activate Verizon phones
B) Why HTC, et. al., makes smartphones that support AT&T OR T-Mobile, but not both.
I like T-Mobile UK & so hopefully T-Mobile USA will succeed :D
@jerry (#2)
Very good points! Add
C) Why there are so few world phones (i.e. quad band GSM _and_ CDMA). Verizon has couple, but that’s about it.
I has such huge hopes that DROID and Nexus One would have multiband capabilities… but heck, none of them does.
this is a great article. TMO had let’s a lot of people down both current and new customers. the 3 other carriers are getting the good Android phones while tmo stagnates. Very sad
How about Google purchasing T-Mobile?
@jerry The problem is not just HTC. The technology between the two is incompatible on the 3G level. They use different frequencies, so they are incompatible. EDGE works on all phones on either carrier, as long as the phone is unlocked. You probably will never see a phone that works on both networks. They usually make an equivalent for the other company, but that’s up to the company not HTC. HTC just makes phones and sells them to carriers. Carriers have to have interest in the phone. And again, each carrier needs a different radio to work on 3G.
@reference;Boondock Saints 1.
HOW BOUT IF THEY START MAKING PHONES LIKE THOSE CHINESE HANDSETS THAT COME WITH DUAL GSM SLOTS AND CDMA CAPABILITIES..
Yes! I think google should buy tmobile and increase towers in USA and implement new tecnology and I think tmobile would rule..
For me (german web designer, 33yo) it´s always funny to read articles about T-Mobile written by americans. I still don´t think that I have the big picture how T-Mobile is seen in other countries but I´ll try to explain what T-Mobile ist for us.
As you have written, T-Mobile is a part of Deutsche Telekom AG. DTAG was formed during the privatisation of the formerly state-owned german post office and that explains the image that DTAG and T-Mobile still have in Germany.
T-Mobile is one of the 4 mobile carriers in Germany and to most people I know, its seen as a no-go option. Of all the hundreds of contact in my mobile phone, I have perhaps 2 or 3 T-Mobile phone numbers. Almost everyone I know would describe it as as slow, ignorant, overpriced and with a horrible service. T-Mobile is the official seller of iPhones in germany and it´s the reason, why 90% of people (that I know) that wanted to buy one, didn´t do it. You had to be a really bad case of an apple fanboy to ignore the fact that it came with a subscription-based contract with T-Mobile.
From my point of view T-Mobile is perceived as the retarded eldest brother of the german mobile carriers. You can´t deny that he exists but none of the children would have the idea to play with him.
One policy T-Mobile needs to change is the structure of their ETF’s. I had a G1, and broke my contract after 13 months. My ETF was the same as if I had broke it after a month — it had not dropped a penny, and would not have dropped unless I stayed with T-Mobile for a full year and a half on that contract. That is unreasonable, and makes me very unlikely to return to T-Mobile anytime unless they change that.
Can we just beat the dead horse of Lousy coverage in the US! Who cares about anything else? Can you get a signal???
mm> That’s interesting. Most of my family in Germany uses T-Mobile. But, Similar situation happened here with AT&T – the Government split it.
In the USA, T-Mobile is the “hip” carrier, they are the first to carry the social networking phones, Sidekick, Android sets (like Motorola Cliq, G1..etc) better prices. Not the best coverage, but good customer service. :)
G-mobile…I like the sound of that! :-)
Give it a couple years. You will see baseband chips (RF) do tmo (AWS) and att frequencies in one device. There is no conspiracy.
Att choose to overlay 3g in their 1900 band when they first started 3g – they got an FCC waiver for this. First mistake: the us govt did not have a plan for spectrum alignment with the rest of the world. Att went out the door and pushed infrastructure partners down their path.
When tmo came along there was consensus for spectrum at aws (1700/2100) The reason we can’t use 2100 umts as other countries do is that we have existing users in that spectrum.
Here in the pacfic northwest (spokane washington) tmo’s signal is great never any problems..the phones they offer (not the n1 tmo doesn’t sell that google does) suck if u want android,what keeps me with them is their awsome customer service.best I have ever experianced with ANY company.
If google was to buy out or merge with tmobile and take it over to make their actual own phone company, tmobile will quickloy rise in quality and popularity. Google is one of the largest or going to be the largest company in the world with it starting to even come onto our computers. If google made their own Phone company you can sign me up!
google buy T-mobile! make G-Mobile
Never had a problem with T-Mobile in the Columbia, SC area.
It just works… even with the reported outage I never had a problem.
Come on, T-Mo, give me a reason to stay. I’m looking for current phones, not 2 year-old technology. Look at N1, EVO 3G, Galaxy S for three examples of what you need to offer. Otherwise, this Android fan will go elsewhere on June 1, 2010.
G-mobile would be awesome! T-mobile has really disappointed me in the past year…I hope they pick up here soon and give me a reason to stay!
I love my T-Mobile, but what they need is an influx of some new Android phones. Their selection right now isn’t too bad, but it could be much better.
I love T-Mobile USA. They have the best customer service and the best data plans of any US carrier (and I have tried them all).
T Mobile in the US has chosen very poorly in terms of Android adoption. Not taking the Hero, not having a Nexus at each store. Then they goof it up worse and give us an obsolete HD2. They have an awesome service (I get up to 4 MB/s on my G1), yet when I want to upgrade, only option are mediocre to poor phones, unless I dish out 529 dollars for a Nexus.
T Mobile needs better Android phones, and understand, that at least voice should be covered in the most remote areas in the US. Try using your phone in Moundsville, WV or New Martinsville.
Metropolitan areas and Highways are covered nicely. But you stray 5 miles out of these realms and your in trouble.
If they want to make progress, they need to tackle a lot of fronts.
One of the main things T-Mobile has going against it is the tremendous lobbying power the big two(ATT and Verizon) have over them. Having a parent company in a foreign company has hurt them in this department. You need towers to establish coverage that requires approval by local towns and municipalities. I attended a town hall meeting in the Cleveland area last October and the loudest voices coming from those opposing the building of a new tower paid for by T-Mobile were being funded by ATT. The tower did not get built and there is a dead zone for about a 10 mile radius on the south side of Cleveland with no 3G or EDGE just G.
Political influence plays a major role in the business world. That is something a lot of people overlook in our “free market”. Thankfully, T-Mobile is in talks to with Clearwire to expand their back-haul.
My reply to people who still think that T-Mobile is not on the cutting edge with phones(because you want the worthless keyboard on the Droid) is simply the question: Who was the first to offer the Nexus One running Android 2.1? I upgraded from a Cliq to a Nexus One a week after release, and I’ve compared against an overclocked rooted Droid running 2.1 and you would have to all but cripple the phone (or use a task killer every 3o minutes) to enjoy running 2.1 in all its glory at stock speeds.
hahaha, this is ridiculous comments…
If you guys wanna switch, then switch already hahaha.
T-mobile, Sprint, Verizon and AT&T all want the same thing customers. But if you’re not happy with T-mobile’s phones, then switch! No matter how much you complain about t-mobile’s 3g network. T-mo won’t just snap their fingers and build a tower right next to your house! Get a freaking common sense people. If you don’t like it, go with the other 3… Life is simple, but yet you guys are making it harder for yourselves. Towers, network upgrades will take TIME! get it in your head, T-I-M-E. T-mo was 1 yr and a half late in the 3g GAME. Therefore it is only reasonable that they are just deploying their 3g towers and networks as we type and argue bout this. SO if you’re impatient, then switch! don’t freaking yell and post comments on the internet regarding a problem you guys clearly don’t understand.
My Io-sound i 90 is not able to connect with t mobile service in usa ca,please suggest the solution
Hey i have an idea why doesn’t t-mobile buy cricket then they could use there towers as a backhaul for them even though i don’t think they’ll need it i have been with tmobile usa from the start and so far barely any problems especially with their new out reach on motorolas motoblur and google phones then tmo would be number one btu they need to update their quadband phones
Did u know when verizon started they bought cingular and virgin mobile but virgin pulled out and became a pay as you go secondary cricket company