T-Mobile Says Next iPhone Might Support its 3G/4G Service... Maybe

Earlier this week, a T-Mobile executive made a statement that implied that the next-generation iPhone is going to support the AWS frequency bands that his company uses provide 3G and 4G service. This carrier has now issued a clarification.

The comments Neville Ray, T-Mobile's chief technology officer, made at CES were eagerly leapt on by those who would like to see this carrier release Apple's smartphone. All its top U.S. rivals -- Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint -- offer the iPhone 4S already.

In order to not get anyone's hopes up too much, T-Mobile issued this statement:

"Comments made by T-Mobile’s CTO, Neville Ray, regarding the evolution of chipsets to include additional bands were misconstrued. Mr. Ray was speaking generally to chipset advancements available to all phone manufacturers. T-Mobile has no knowledge of Apple’s product roadmap and our position on the iPhone has not changed." 

In slightly more more layman's terms, Ray was only pointing out that the radio chipsets used in smartphones are starting to support the unusual wireless frequencies T-Mobile uses for its high-speed data access as a standard feature. This carrier uses the AWS bands, while AT&T and other GSM carriers use completely different frequencies.

This means it would be relatively easy for Apple to make a smartphone that could connect to T-Mobile's 3G and 4G service, that that it is automatically going to. Ray was speaking from a technological standpoint, while the final decision to bring the iPhone this carrier will be a business one.

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