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T-Mobile, the fourth-largest cellular carrier in the nation, has finally gotten around to offering the iPhone. Sure, it's probably the fourth-largest carrier because it took so long to offer the iPhone, but as of next month T-Mobile customers will be able to purchase the device without having to unlock one from AT&T. T-Mobile customers can pre-register now to get their phone for the low-low price of $580.

Because we can't help incite enough wireless network flame wars, we're going to start the morning with what we'll call an "update" to the usual comparison between wireless network speeds in the United States. PC World performed a little test between major carriers, and the results are actually a little more surprising than what you might've guessed.

The anti-piracy group BREIN won a victory in the Dutch courts recently, which resulted in the courts ordering the two largest ISPs in the Netherlands, Ziggo and XS4ALL, to block users from accessing the venerable Torrent sharing site Pirate Bay. Hot on the heels of their victory, BREIN requested that ISPs KPN and T-Mobile follow suit. Instead of bowing to their whim, both have declared that they will not block the site and have voiced displeasure at the tactics being used by the anti-piracy group. 

AT&T has spent months trying to convince the U.S. government to allow their $39 billion takeover of T-Mobile to go ahead. Along the way, the Telecom giants have argued the necessity of the merger, saying that the demands put upon the companies exceed the available wireless bandwidth allotted to them. However, the merger had several critics who said that merging the two companies would stifle competition. Today, AT&T announced that it was ceasing its bid for T-Mobile.

It seems like everyone has a phone bill story. Back in the day it was because of long distance calls, or calls to 1-900 numbers. Now, it has to do with limited texting and data plans. Whatever the case, phones a great way to run up a huge bill that will come and slap you in the face with a wet fish at the end of the month. Ever since Cecilia Aarons got her $201,000 bill from T-Mobile, she knows that well. It's worth mentioning that this wasn't a mistake; the bill was perfectly legitimate. There were however, some extenuating circumstances. Cecilia has two deaf-mute brothers on her plan. Being deaf-mute and all, the two communicate primarily by text message. Cecilia had an appropriate data and texting plan and everything, but then one of the brothers spent two weeks in Canada and you can probably figure out where this is headed.

Smozzy, a new Android app, provides a way for users to access websites on their phones without a data plan. No, it's not powered by black magicks as one might expect, but rather allows users to receive web content, in full, via SMS. Now before you go getting too excited, it's worth mentioning that the app only works for U.S. located T-Mobile users at the moment and you also need unlimited texting if you don't want it to cost you more than a data plan, but aside from that, it miraculously functions as advertised. It's a simple concept really, and where the app excels is in actually pulling it off. When you send a request through Smozzy, it goes out through SMS. The Smozzy servers then go out and find what you're looking for, download the website, put it in a ZIP file, encode that as a .png and send it back to you via MMS. The end result is a completely surfable page, content and links intact.

As you may know, AT&T has had its sights set on T-Mobile for a while now, and the two had agreed that AT&T would be allowed to gobble up T-Mobile for a scant $39 billion. If you had your money on the merger getting blocked for antitrust violations, you were right. Today, the U.S. Government sued to block the merger on grounds that it would "substantially lessen competition," at which point AT&T's stock took a 5% hit. If the merger should happen to go through after all, we will see the birth of the largest mobile service provider in the United States.

Due to cancelation language written into the merger agreement, AT&T has some significant incentives to fight these antitrust allegations. If the deal fails to go through, AT&T owes T-Mobile a check for $3 billion and reduced charges for dialing into AT&Ts network as part of a package that's worth somewhere around $7 billion.

Though cellphones generally display the name of the caller, they tend to do so only if the calling number is in the phone's address book, if not, then only the number is displayed and we all wonder if we're about to pick up the phone with an ex or telemarketer inviting us to a taste test on the other end. Now, if one happens to have T-Mobile as their carrier, a new caller ID service is available for an extra $4 per month. Using technology based on Cequint, the service, called "Name ID," displays a caller's name, phone number, and the city from which they are calling. Oddly, none of the four major US carriers have had caller ID -- a service that has been available on landlines for quite some time now -- available on their mobile service, and it is a little surprising that it took so long to come to mobile phones, but hey, better late than never. (Electronista via Techmeme)

Yesterday's news that AT&T plans to acquire T-Mobile for $39 billion sent shockwaves through the mobile phone-owning populace, and based on our informal Internet sentiment analysis following the deal, a lot of people are unhappy about it. Many T-Mobile customers don't want to go over to AT&T, and web freedom advocates dislike AT&T's complicity in sweeping NSA surveillance programs. And cell phone owners on all networks have plenty to fear about an America in which there are only three relevant carriers, and one, AT&T-Mo (our coinage, not theirs) essentially has a monopoly on GSM technology in the U.S. The acquisition is not a done deal yet, but its opponents who simply assume that it would be open-and-shut antitrust may be in for a rude surprise.

AT&T and Deutsche Telekom have come upon an agreement wherein AT&T will buy T-Mobile USA for $39 billion ($14 billion of it in stock), gobbling up the mobile service that people generally used when AT&T or Verizon didn't tickle their fancy. The combined user base of the newlook AT&T is estimated to be around 130 million people, though seeing as how this merger will create what is essentially a monopoly on GSM in the United States, the merger will have to pass through various regulatory checks. From The Hill:

The transaction will require Justice Department scrutiny on antitrust grounds and FCC public interest approval due to the transfer of spectrum licenses. Observers will watch for conditions ranging from broadband deployment to low-cost subscriptions to net neutrality. The door is open for the merger to be entirely blocked, and many Democrats on Capitol Hill can be expected to make that case.

If the deal doesn't pass for whatever reason, AT&T will owe T-Mobile a $3 billion breakup fee, as well as giving T-Mobile some of their AWS spectrum, and granting T-Mobile a roaming agreement on which both parties agree. Why would AT&T buy up T-Mobile, aside from it being a savvy business move? They claim it will provide an expanded LTE footprint. Also, it's a savvy business move. There isn't word yet regarding how this merger will affect current T-Mobile customers, though hopefully they'll be able to keep their current plans, as well as not succumb to AT&T's notoriously subpar service.

(via Engadget and The Hill)

Research in Motion has officially announced the BlackBerry Curve 3G, the latest in its Curve line of smartphones. While the phone ships with BlackBerry 5, RIM says that the Curve 3G is also capable of running BlackBerry 6, the new OS that was revealed with the announcement of the BlackBerry Torch 9800 last week. But there'll be some time before you can run it: "BlackBerry 6 is expected to be available for the BlackBerry Curve 3G, subject to carrier certifications, in the coming months."

The biggest mystery: On what carriers will the Curve 3G be available? The release says only that "various carriers and distribution partners around the world" will carry the phone. Following the cosmic unfairness of AT&T, already fatted with iPhone-exclusive lucre, getting the BlackBerry Torch 9800 exclusively as well, the variousness is at least encouraging; however, we want to know -- is this phone coming to Verizon or not?? Unwiredview.com says that T-Mobile will "certainly" carry the Curve 3G.

Full release:

This is just not a good summer to be selling dumbphones. Just a day after Microsoft's announcement that they and Verizon would discontinue the Kin after just six weeks, T-Mobile is axing their Sidekick LX and Sidekick 2008 phones, effective tomorrow.

Whereas Microsoft at least said that they'd continue to sell their remaining stock of Kin phones in the U.S., T-Mobile is taking an even more drastic tack: They won't be selling Sidekicks anywhere, be it in stores or online.

PhoneDog has gotten ahold of a leaked internal guide for T-Mobile employees that details a new strategy underway at the mobile provider: Apparently, they're going to start pushing Android and BlackBerry apps in a big way starting at or around June 16th. One guess why: While T-Mobile execs have said that they would "definitely be interested" in carrying the iPhone, so far, rumors to the effect that they would do so in 2010 haven't panned out yet, and pushing apps for Android and BlackBerry could be a way to counter AT&T's smug but effective app-centric iPhone promos.

Speculation aside, the guide says that by June 16th, T-Mobile will be giving an "Android App Guide" to Android customers to help them navigate the universe of Android apps. There'll also be something called the "Android App Book," which'll run at 200 full-color pages and be given to customers who purchase Android devices "during the activation and on-boarding process." Customers who don't qualify will be able to buy them from T-Mobile stores or Barnes & Noble. (They're not currently available at Barnes & Noble's website, however.)

Recently, a number of cable companies have been dropping hints about offering cellphone / wireless Internet service. So far they’ve just been baby steps, with a small test rollout here, or a limited test deployment there. But thus far, none of the CableCos really have much to show for all their talk.

But the cable companies need to think bigger, much bigger: If they do, both you and they will end up winners. Here's why: