Nokia N95 gets Cingular love?
Nokia’s N95 is an incredible multimedia handset, sporting a slew of features including WiFi, a 5 megapixel camera, 2.6" QVGA screen, and far too many more to list here. The problem, at least for those of use over here in the good ole’ U.S.A., is that Nokia has yet to announce plans to include support for American 3G networks. A necessary requisite for its release on this side of the pond. In what is, at least for now just a rumor, Guidewire is reporting that a "trusted source" has revealed that Nokia is also set to produce a version of the N95 that includes the North American 3G bands. Again, this is just a rumor, but we can dream right?
[Via Guidewire]
If Cingular gets this phone in addition to BlackBerries and iPhone, they will rule US wireless business.
about how much will this run on a 2yr commit?
Wow, I really hope this is true, and that it will be released relatively soon… I really want this phone.
praise be lord baby jesus let this be true!
As I had mentioned before while other get better customer service we get better phones and networks, maybe Cingular is getting to what the people want, better Phones.
Victor, I completely agree. I am alright with that too, just let me have a sweet phone, please.
Rich Brome of phonescoop.com has posted this same rumor. Rich is like jesus in a tuxedo t-shirt (he’s formal, but he likes to party)
-Mike Honcho
If..if..IF…ENOUGH!!!
Nokia needs to just sell these phones directly with the quad band GSM and tri-band 3G freqs on them and bypass Cingular. This should apply to the E90 Communicator also.
I’m concerned that if Cingular does offer this phone subsidized, then they will remove features such as GPS and Wifi and will probably push for an exclusivity period. I hope that if Nokia does make this phone available through Cingular, that they also have the sense to offer this phone directly and unencumbered.
Does this mean that Unlocked 3G Nokia phones such as the N80 CANNOT run on Cingulars US BAsed 3G network???
Correct. I have yet to see a Nokia phone offered through Cingular that has the 3G freqs built into them. Cingular wants the American consumer to remain “dumb and slow”. The ONLY solutions would be for Nokia to build the phones as I mentioned before or hope that TMobile will step up when they finally switch on their 3G networks. Of course TMobile will run on a totally different frequency set than Cingular on that 3G band.
This will be VERY interesting, indeed.
Yup – I just confirmed directly from Nokia sources that you CANNOT purchase an unlocked Nokia phone and use its 3G capabilities on Cingular. Reason is that Cingular’s protocol is different than Nokia OEM.
The sad news about this is that it makes NO sense to buy an unlocked, state of art Nokia since it can only function as a regular GSM phone.
Unless Cingular (or T-Mobile?) institutes a more liberal policy towards unlocked phones, the US consumer is forever bound to whatever phones any given carrier will include in their line-up.
The funny thing is that we all know the carriers make their money on the usage, NOT on the actual piece of hardware. One would think that any given carrier would want users to have the latest and greatest phones to use on their network as this will surely boost usage.
I guess it’s not that simple…
NokiaFan:
You’re right, its not that simple; its a lot simpler.
The Nokia N95’s HSDPA was built to use towers on the 2100MHz frequency. Cingular’s network is 1900MHz. They’re physically incompatible.
That’s all the Nokia rep meant when he said you couldn’t use 3G in the states on an unlocked N95.
(This is the reason that everyone in here is anxiously hoping for a version of the N95 specifically made for the Cingular HSDPA network)