InformationWeek.com is reporting that T-Mobile finally announced that its long-awaited 3G mobile network was up and running as of last week. T-Mobile customers have been waiting patiently for nearly 2 years for the arrival of the new high-speed mobile Internet-ready 3G network.
The company’s biggest competitors, AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint, have already been offering high-speed 3G data networks to their customers for years, leaving T-Mobile trailing behind in the race for high-speed mobile Internet service. Now that T-Mobile has finally caught up with the competition (at least when it comes to mobile Internet performance), the network’s customers should be setting on easy street, right? Not so fast…
Despite the fact that T-Mobile now has its very own 3G data network in place, the company has almost no 3G-ready mobile phones to take advantage of the new network. At present, they have only four models that can access the new high-speed network, and unfortunately, none of the four are real standouts.
Conventional wisdom dictates that T-Mobile should have introduced the new high-speed data network with the launch of a drop-dead, must-have smartphone. Debuting the network with a flashy new phone that can take full advantage of it would have been a smart marketing decision for T-Mobile. But instead, the company’s big announcement received very little fanfare, and even less free publicity in the media last week.
But while T-Mobile’s marketing efforts may have been highly flawed in debuting the new network, at least they now have the 3G high speed data access available, right? Well, not exactly.
T-Mobile is rolling out the 3G network gradually. According to company representatives, it is now in place only in New York City, and the company claims they will continue to expand the network throughout the year so that it covers “most” of the T-Mobile network by the end of 2008.
Now if the company could just introduce a new line of flashy and sophisticated smartphones to take advantage of their gradually expanding 3G network, consumers might just set up and take notice. Something along the lines of the Apple iPhone — or at least in the same general ballpark — should do the trick.
As it is though, by gradually introducing the new 3G network throughout the country over many months, and failing to have attractive new phones available to take advantage of it, T-Mobile may find it difficult to attract new customers or win over “converts” from AT&T or Verizon.
