T-Mobile CEO Says Network's iPhone Status "Up To Apple"

If you're still caught up in that whole "no-iPhone-on-T-Mobile" saga, your wait will likely end sometime later this year. The beleaguered carrier's CEO, Philipp Humm, recently sat down with AllThingsD, discussing T-Mobile's iPhone holdups as he holds out hope for a 2012 resolution.

The key reason we didn’t have the iPhone in the past is we are on different band than globally the market was. That is something which will change over time. Chipsets are also evolving to be able to allow for more bands.

In other words, the newest upcoming iPhone -- whenever it launches -- should be able to support the 1700/1200 MHz AWS band that T-Mobile uses for its high-speed wireless network. Neville Ray, T-Mobile's chief technology officer, postulated as much when interviewed by CNET. "The next chipset," said Ray, "will support AWS. The challenge that existed in the past will go away." Furthermore, claims CNET,

[t]he executive has seen the chipsets that are available to all of the original equipment manufacturers. The company later clarified that Ray hasn't seen Apple's specific roadmap. But he noted Apple could choose to ignore that capability and not strike a deal with T-Mobile.

Obviously, the new iPhone could simply run on a universal LTE network (part of which would be supported by T-Mobile), so all this progress towards 3G compatibility might be caught in something of a technological limbo as 4G penetrates more and more of the market. Only time will tell. But by now, you're pretty used to waiting, right?

Related articles