T-Mobile turns its back on the world
T-Mobile says no to Planet Earth.
(Credit: NASA)There's something shifty going on at T-Mobile. After years of being able to count on the carrier to offer a full slate of quad-band GSM world phones, the T-Mobile has developed a disturbing trend of stripping the GSM 900 band out of all of its new handsets. I first noticed the pattern when T-Mobile picked up the very cool Nokia 5300 Xpress Music last month. While the unlocked version we reviewed last year was quad-band, T-Mobile's handset is only tri-band (GSM 850/1800/1900). The recent Samsung SGH-T219 and SGH-T329 also are tri-band only. In fact, we haven't seen a quad-band phone from the carrier since last year with the Nokia 6133.
Nokia 5300 Xpress Music
(Credit: Mobiledia)So what gives? I can't fathom a good reason why T-Mobile is making the change. Yes, I realize that the 900 band isn't absolutely essential to use the phone outside of the United States, but it's nice to have nonetheless, as it allows for better coverage abroad, not to mention more customer choice. I expect more from T-Mobile, particularly given its German parent. On the other hand, Cingular Wireless/AT&T is pumping out more world phones, such as the LG CU400. But whatever the reason, I don't understand it and it's just not cool.
- Topics:
-
Phones
- Tags:
-
cell phones,
-
T-Mobile,
-
world phones,
-
Nokia 5300
- Bookmark:
- Digg
- Del.icio.us
cingular/att is starting to look quite a bit more tempting these days; tmobile get your act together!