Yesterday, Sprint announced that Texas is the state with the most 4G penetration on their network. Today T-Mobile launches 3G in Waco Texas. T-Mobile is definitely trailing the pack and if it weren’t for their supurb customer service they would be non existent in my opinion.

T-Mobile today announced the availability details and pricing for the HTC HD2. The phone will be available in retails stores next week on the 24th of March and will be available for $199 with a 2 year congract or for $449.99 for T-Mobile customers on an Even More Plus Plan.

The HTC HD2 was unveiled last month at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The HD2 offers the largest touchscreen available on a smart phone in the US. You will be able to read millions of eBooks, watch movies and tv on its huge crystal clear screen.

Below is a video showing off the phone.

Today the Samsung memoir for T-Mobile arrived at my door step and I did a quick Unboxing video and thought I would share it with you all. You can expect a review in the next week or two.

Samsung Mobile and T-Mobile today announced the upcoming availability of the Samsung Memoir, a full touch-screen mobile phone equipped with an 8-megapixel camera and premium multimedia features, placing it among the highest quality imaging phones available in the U.S.

There is no official word from T-Mobile or Samsung on when the phone will be available or the price, but from the pictures below you can tell it’s going to be one hll of a Phone. I will update this post as soon as I have more information from Samsung and T-Mobile.

As of yesterday T-Mobile has stopped charging an 18 dollar upgrade fee for customers who upgrade their phone.

This is obviously an attempt by the company to be more user friendly and honestly I don’t blame them. But I wonder if that 18 dollar fee will be added to the prices of the phones.

I have been told by a friend who works at T-mobile told me that customers who upgraded with in the past 14 days or so, can request a credit. Not sure how true this is so if anyone knows for sure please let me know.

Today Columbus day, Research in Motion the makers of the Blackberry and Tmobile announced that the Blackberry Pearl Flip Phone, the first ever Blackberry Flip phone will be available in the us from T-Mobile. The Blakberry Pearl Flip Phone, has all the features you would find in a traditional Blackberry, but in the popular Flip phone design.

“The flip phone remains the vastly dominant and preferred design for mobile phones in the United States,” said Leslie Grandy, vice president of product development, T-Mobile USA. “Being the first company in the U.S. to offer the unique BlackBerry experience on a flip phone is a huge benefit for T-Mobile customers.”

The Blackberry Pearl Flip Phone will have built in wi-fi capabilities, which will allow users to use the T-Mobile@home service which gives them unlimited Wi-Fi calling..

The phone is available now at T-Mobile.com and T-Mobile Stores.

Key features of the BlackBerry Pearl Flip from T-Mobile include the following**:

First BlackBerry smartphone to offer popular flip design
Wi-Fi-enabled (802.11 b/g) supporting Wi-Fi calling and fast Web browsing
Support for Unlimited HotSpot Calling, offering unlimited nationwide calling over accessible Wi-Fi networks
T-Mobile’s myFavesSM support to stay in touch with those who matter most, with quick, one-click access for instant messaging, e-mailing, texting or calling to your Fave 5SM from the Home Screen
Enhanced SureType® keyboard to support text messaging, picture messaging, instant messaging (six popular clients), personal e-mail (access up to 10 supported e-mail accounts), and corporate e-mail
2.0 megapixel camera with digital zoom, built-in flash and video recording (requires microSD card)
Advanced media player for pictures, music and video with full-screen video playback
Stereo Bluetooth® support (A2DP/AVRCP) and 3.5mm stereo headset jack
Media management software included on the BlackBerry Tools CD, which allows transfer of music files including sync of desktop iTunes music files***
Enhanced HTML browser for high-performance browsing with a more desktop-style depiction
Internal QVGA 2.4-inch diagonal screen, 320 x 240 pixels and supporting 65K colors
128 MB of flash memory, 256 MB microSD card included, and support for up to a 16 GB microSD/SDHC card
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE/Wi-Fi network including support for international roaming
Dimensions: 3.9” x 1.96” x 0.68”
Weight: 3.6 oz

With G1 the Google Android phone set to launch later this month, a lot of people are wondering can T-Mobile handle the onslaught of new subscribers, and will new subscribers enjoy the t-mobile service?

While I can’t tell you how well the service is around the US, I do have specific knowledge of the NYC area service as I live in NYC.

I personally have been a T-Mobile customer for nearly 2 years, signed up with them after a bad experience with at&t. But after being a T-Mobile customer for 2 to 3 months something bad happened.

A little less than 12 months ago something I started to notice a decline in the quality of my service. The was weird, you could be standing still with 5 Signal Bars and then all of a sudden you had no service. If you were in Manhattan your service was spotty at best. Your phone would beep with missed call alerts but your phone never rang. Calls would drop, or get crossed. I remember answering my phone once to hear some women yelling at me in Spanish.

I thought it was my phone going bad and even took it to a T-Mobile store to get checked, but then friends and business associates began complaining, so I knew it wasn’t just me. I remember once Microsoft was having a huge event on the west side of Manhattan and no one was getting T-Mobile service, not even the Wagner Edstrom Employees in fact it was so bad that Wagner Edstrom Employees and Edelman Employees were sharing each other’s phones. If you don’t know who these two companies are you probably don’t understand how amazing it was to witness that.

It was so bad that I honestly considered switching, but I was only a few months into my contact and I did not want to pay an ETF especially after paying one to get out of my at&t contract.
So I dealt with it, and maybe 2 to 3 months after the problems were at their worst, I get a little email in my inbox from T-Mobile. The email said they recently added a new tower in my area. Then a week later another, and another and since then the T-Mobiles service improved. It improved so much that I no longer wanted out. I was happy again.

Just recently I would say a little more than a month now; I have even been getting periodic 3G service with killer download speeds.
So I recently spoke with a T-Mobile Spokesperson and I asked what T-Mobile has done in the NYC area specifically to improve service?

I was simply told that they identified trouble spots and added more towers, and that they will continue to do so to make sure the network remains in the state it is in.
While the Spokesperson for T-Mobile did not acknowledge the bad service a year ago, I kind of got the feeling they wanted to prevent that from happening again, especially with the G1 on the horizon.

I then asked, with the 3G network being available in some major cities what phones are currently available to use the 3G network?

T-Mobile said “T-Mobile’s UMTS/HSDPA high-speed data network is currently available across 20 major metropolitan markets: Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York (including northern New Jersey and Long Island), Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle. T-Mobile plans to expand its service by the end of October to additional markets, including Memphis, Sacramento and Tampa. An additional four markets — Birmingham, Denver, Detroit, Kansas City— are expected to have the network available before the end of the year, increasing the number of markets with T-Mobile’s 3G network to 27 markets. The planned expansion is expected to deliver T-Mobile 3G services to more than two-thirds of T-Mobile’s current data customers, with meaningful expansion to additional customers and markets through.

T-Mobile is currently selling four handsets that make calls on both our current GSM network and our new 3G network. Similar to the experience with Wi-Fi and GSM handsets, these phones automatically connect with the best available network—3G or GSM. Customers using one of today’s 3G-capable handsets will experience a faster response for t-zones and downloading content. As of August 2008, T-Mobile’s 3G-capable handsets in 3G markets include Nokia 6263, Samsung t639, Samsung t819 and Nokia 3555, as well as the first HSDPA device - the Sony Ericsson TM506. We are anticipating the retail availability of the T-Mobile G1, also 3G compatible, later this month.”

I then asked, will customers who buy the G1 outside of the 3G network be notified that they will not experience the full potential of the 3G network?

The T-Mobile Spokesperson replied “Because customers will have the best data experience when using the device over our new 3G network, and because the mobile Web experience is so central to the device capabilities, we’ve chosen to promote and sell the phone at retail only in those markets where 3G is available.  Of course, if customers in other markets would like to purchase and use the phone they can purchase it online at www.t-mobileg1.com.  Customers can use our personal coverage check website to find out about T-Mobile coverage where it matters most to them.”

That really didn’t answer my question but que sera sera.

So G1 Customers, while I personally am not excited about the arrival of the G1, I do think you will enjoy the T-Mobile network at least in the NYC area. But if NYC is to serve as an example the rest of the country is only going to see good things from T-Mobile.

Check out this Emulator for the T-Mobile G1, and after playing with it for a while it leaves a lot to be desired and yes I know it’s an emulator with limited functionality but still it seems as it lacks a lot. So my question is, is this really T-Mobiles and Googles attempt to compete with the iPhone? If it is it is a poor one.

I kind of want to get the G1 but after that little emulator Demo, I am glad I wasn’t one of the hundreds or thousands that pre-ordered it.

T-Mobile has four features, the first being “Block All Chargeable Messages” and like the features name says it block all Chargeable Messages. The secound blocks chargeable IM messages, the third chargeable text messages and the fourt chargeable MMS messages.

Since T-Mobile offered very little information about these features on their website, many including my self thought that feature 3 - 4 would block messages after your 400th text/mms or 1000th text/mms.

But I quickly learned that was not the case when I could not send or recieve text and mms messages. In fact T-Mobile CS told me that those features override any plan you are in and block all Messages regardless of the plan you are in. So essentially I was told, if I enable those features I can’t send txt or receive them even though I am subscribing to a plan.

Today a T-Mobile spokesmen told me the following “T-Mobile has for years offered extensive filters built into the network to help detect and block spam text messages being sent to customer’s handsets that originate from internet IP addresses. These filters are updated on an ongoing basis, including monitoring for newly emerging schemes.

As a company committed to providing the best customer experience in wireless, T-Mobile also offers postpaid and FlexPay customers the ability to block chargeable text messages, MMS, IM and e-mail from being sent to their handsets at no additional charge. Customers can contact Customer Care or a retail sales representative for assistance and soon will be able to help themselves with tools on http://www.myt-mobile.com.”

So essentially they are spam filters, but then the T-Mobile spokesmen goes on to say Postpaid and FlexPay customers will have the ability to block chargeable text messages. So I am confused and will ask T-Mobile to clarify. 

HTC said they would sell 600,000 - 700,000 G1 phones by year end but with T-Mobile halting the sale of the phone due to overwhelming demand, will HTC be able to keep up and supply the phones, or is it a marketing ploy by T-Mobile to make people think its in high demand?

Personally I think it’s crap that there is such a high demand they have halted the sale, I think it’s a marketing tactic, but hey I haven’t seen the numbers and I doubt Google or T-Mobile will release the numbers.