According to Gizmodo, Cult of Mac is claiming that an industry insider from within T-Mobile has said that “T-Mobile is in the "advanced stage" of talks with Apple regarding a certain gadget.” That gadget just happens to be the iPhone. While there have been talks of iPhone expanding to more carriers for some time now, there has been very little in the way of solid evidence.
Cult of Mac’s source claims that the likelihood of iPhone arriving in the fall is 80%. The fact that lends credibility to this rumor is that it would arrive around the same time as AT&T’s exclusivity agreement with Apple is likely going to end. Another major factor is that Apple does often add extra carriers when they are able to do so. Although, there are also plenty of arguments as to why T-Mobile would be chosen.
One major factor that would cause Apple to select T-Mobile as the next carrier for iPhone is the fact that both AT&T and T-Mobile use the GSM technology that current iPhones run on. Another factor is the fact that Verizon is currently heavily invested in Google’s Android platform. Therefore, there is the potential for a conflict of interests to arise over both platforms. Despite these facts, there is still a major factor that could prevent iPhone’s move to T-Mobile.
According to Cult of Mac, “One important point, to which I don't have the answer, is whether the iPhone 4 is compatible with T-Mobile's 3G network. Customers with unlocked iPhone 3GS are able to use T-Mobile's Edge data network, but not the faster 3G, which operates on the 1700/2100 MHz bands.”
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