This is going to sound like a rant, because it is.

I am always astounded as to why the manufacturers/carriers for cell phones either seem to be completely stupid or engaged in a malicious conspiracy against the USA.

Of course I joke about the malicious part, but seriously why is it that NOBODY understands that a cell phone WITHOUT 850 Mhz support is COMPLETELY WORTHLESS in the USA. The only company that can use a 1900 MHZ only phone is T-Mobile.

T-Mobile, although a solid company, seems it will never be a serious contender in the 3G market. Its GPRS service is very cheap, but comparable to a 56K modem at best. Can they actually deploy EDGE? Doubtfull. T-Mobile's niche in the market has always been small hip devices and very cheap and flexible plans. T-Mobile has not even started to release the HTC Magician or the Blue Angel in the USA. We thought they were going to actually be the first. T-Mobile seems to have demonstrated they cannot keep up in the USA at least.

EDGE/GPRS can only be obtained through Cingular now (ATT is finally gone for good). Cingular is horrible in delivering 1900 MHZ service. Always has been. I also have direct proof they are in fact getting rid of it in many areas. Of course they lie about it, but there are too many of us in Las Vegas, NV that know the truth.

We can ONLY SURVIVE WITH 850 MHZ. Period.

The HTC Magician, the BenQ P50, The Amoi G6301.... These look like seriously cool phones, all without 850MHZ support. Which makes them useless to everybody in the USA. The Amoi G6301 actually has EDGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

( I know some people are itching to reply that the HTC Magician does support 850MHZ. My reply is where can you actually buy one? Expansys and I-Mate both don't even know when they can get stock, let alone the carriers knowing ANYTHING about their deployment plans)

I had to wait so long.... so very very long... till the HTC Blue Angel. Its predecessors were only 1900 MHZ. I now have a solid PDA phone.

Don't get me wrong, I love it. But GSM manufacturers/carriers are only fooling themselves. I WANT 3G. I NEED 3G. Verizon can deliver it with the CDMA version, the HTC Harrier. I am going to picking one up soon. That and the HTC Blue Angel/Harrier is still horrible at Bluetooth profiles support. I am hoping the new ones have handled this better.

I can only hope that one day these manufacturers will get in touch with reality and actually develop QUAD-BAND Phones and maybe, just maybe.. EDGE Support.

The only thing worse then the stupidity of GSM developement is that none of the really cool phones ever make it to CDMA. CDMA seems to have the HTC Harrier and Samsung i730. That's about it.

So far all I get is tortured with pictures of what I know I can never ever have