3G for T-Mobile due by summer

T-Mobile's long-delayed 3G broadband network will finally arrive by summer 2008, says CEO Hamid Akhavan. T-Mobile is currently the only US carrier without a high-speed data network, a fact that is likely hurting the company's finances. Speaking at a conference staged for the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Akhavan explained that the problem has mainly been with spectrum, and simply took longer than expected to resolve. Government approval issues have also posed a dilemma, adds T-Mobile USA's Peter Dobrow.

Now that such obstacles are done with, Akhavan notes that T-Mobile is assembling a "robust" 3G service that will debut in major urban areas, and even claims that the company will have the best 3G connections in the US. Some 3G phones are already available from the company in anticipation of the network's opening.

Akhavan has also announced a forthcoming Austrian release of the iPhone, and in the fourth quarter of this year, the arrival of the first T-Mobile device based on Google's Android platform. [via Crave]

Filed under: iPhone, gadgets, networking
Other story tags: T-Mobile, cellphones, 3G