Carriers - 4/4 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Mar

Could Sprint And T-Mobile Be Merging?

Posted by Will Shanklin in News, Rumors

News comes this morning that Deutsche Telekom has been having talks to sell its T-Mobile US unit to Sprint in a deal that would combine the third and fourth largest US carriers. Deutsche Telekom would reportedly still have "a major stake" in the newly merged company, so this would be seen as more of a merger than a selloff.

Deutsche Telekom Chief Financial Officer Timotheus Hoettges said about the possible deal: "In general, all options are open in the U.S. -- the sale of the whole business or of parts." Business Week reports that the talks have been on and off and that one of the biggest hindrances to a deal has been the failure to come to a mutual agreement about the value of T-Mobile.

Dec

Android Devs To Manufacturers and Carriers: It's Not Rooting, It's Openness

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Editorials, News

The Android dev team has generally been assumed to have a passive stance on rooting and unlocking Android devices. That is, do it if you want - we won't stop you. And there's certainly evidence abound supporting this - Google's Nexus One could be unlocked via a simple ADB (Android Device Bridge) command: fastboot oem unlock. The same is true of the Nexus S.

Of course, it only makes sense - Google doesn't want to put any unnecessary barriers between Android developers and the open source OS, especially on developer phones.

But a new post on the official Android Developers Blog shows that team Android is a little more concerned with how their operating system is being used than some of us may have previously assumed.

Jul

United States Library Of Congress: Jailbreaking/Unlocking/Rooting Your Phone Is A-OK With The Government - Here Are The Implications

Posted by David Ruddock in News

If you’ve cruised the blogosphere today, you’ve probably noticed a number of articles talking about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and the Library of Congress having decided to add a few exemptions to the sweeping piece of legislation’s authority. Why is this a big deal? And is it a big deal at all?

On the latter, in some ways yes, and I’ll explain why only some later. For the former, it signifies a change in attitude over what constitutes infringement of digital copyright for two major pieces of technology, one of which we’re interested in here at Android Police (take a guess at what sort of technology that is).

Jul

Samsung Galaxy S Continues World Takeover, Headed To Rogers

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Galaxy S, News, Rogers

The Samsung Galaxy S has already invaded Canada by launching on Bell, but Samsung wasn’t content with just one carrier. Rogers Wireless has been confirmed to be receiving its own version of the Galaxy S, set for release some time this September.

There’s no word as to what version of the Galaxy S will hit Rogers, as there are a plenty of variations, some with LED Flash, some with a front-facing camera, and the Galaxy S Pro, which includes a physical keyboard. No matter the version, it will still include the usual TouchWiz UI, 4” Super AMOLED screen, and 1 GHz Hummingbird processor.

Jul

T-Mobile Continues Surprisingly Vigorous Campaign Of HSPA+ Expansion; To Add 19 New Cities By July 21st

Posted by David Ruddock in Carriers, News, T-Mobile

Boy Genius Report is claiming today that T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network is expanding into 19 more metropolitan areas throughout the United States on July 21st. The full list:

Austin, TX
Baltimore, MD
Birmingham, AL
Cincinnati, OH
Cleveland, OH
Columbus, OH
El Paso, TX
Ft. Worth, TX
Hawaii, HI
Indianapolis, IN
Jacksonville, FL
Kansas City, MO
Louisville, KY
Milwaukee, WI
Minneapolis, MN
Portland, OR
San Antonio, TX
Washington, D.C.
Wichita, KS

T-Mobile is certainly trying to get the jump on Verizon and AT&T’s soon-to-exist LTE networks. Their strategy is clearly focused on the establishment of HSPA+ in urban areas, rather than creating “blanketed” regions of service.

May

Skype Mobile Coming To Android This Year, Possibly With Video Calling

Posted by John Thompson in Applications, Apps/Games, News

Since Skype pulled their app from the Android Market, allowing access only for Verizon customers, the rest of us have been left wondering if we’ll see a Skype app re-appear on the market for all carriers.

Fortunately, Skatter Tech were wondering the exact same thing, and asked Skype for details on their future plans for Android. When asked about the availability of the app to users on all carriers, Brianna Reynaud from Skype PR answered

We will be bringing a direct to consumer app to the Android marketplace later this year. This application will be available for all consumers globally to download regardless of carriers.