T-Mobile Turns Off Twitter?
Reports alleging T-Mobile has shut off Twitter for their customers are rolling in. Complaints have surfaced on T-Mobile’s user forum on Satisfaction as well as several other personal blogs and forums. A T-Mobile representative replied to a customer’s service request with this email:
…Twitter is not an authorized third-party service provider, and therefore you are not able to utilize service from this provide any longer…. T-Mobile is not in violation of any agreement by not providing service to Twitter. T-Mobile regrets any inconvenience, however please note that if you remain under contract and choose to cancel service, you will be responsible for the $200 early termination fee that would be assessed to the account at cancellation.
I’m a T-Mobile customer and testing the issue right now, although I have received sporadic updates as recently as last night. It would be quite astonishing if T-Mobile is blocking an opt-in text messaging service considering how common they are and relatively small market share in the U.S. However, it wouldn’t be the first time the company has been at loggerheads with a third party service. Earlier this year, T-Mobile blocked VOIP-based free calling service Truphone, but eventually lost in court.
(Update: I have been able to receive messages, but not send them. I have not had the same problem with other short codes. An email is in to T Mobile’s customer support. We’ve also called customer support. Customer support, at least, says they don’t have a blanket policy against the use of any services on their phones, although they cannot guarantee the operation of any such services. Commentors have received sporadic service.)
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Google Tries To Land Mobile Phone Deals With Sprint, Verizon . . . Anyone
If things go well, we might finally see that Gphone by the middle of next year. Google is in heated talks with wireless carriers in the U.S., including Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile, (and Vodafone internationally) to carry the Gphone, reports the WSJ. Google already competes (and cooperates) with some of these carriers. It recently fought with Verizon, for instance, over the rules of the upcoming 700 Mhz wireless spectrum auctions, while it is partnering with Sprint on its upcoming Wimax network. The only carrier not mentioned is AT&T, which carries the iPhone.
When the Gphone does come out, chances are that there won’t be just one Gphone, but many. In the next two weeks, Google is also expected, says the WSJ, “to announce new software and services that handset makers could use to build customized Google-powered phones.” Just as in social networking, Google wants to make mobile phones an open platform that developers can build lots of applications on top of. We may very well see a mobile 2.0 platform war brewing between the Gphone, the iPhone, Windows Mobile, and Nokia’s Ovi.
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