Following up on the marketing collateral from earlier today, reports are starting to surface from this morning’s employee and dealer training session that the MetroPCS BlackBerry 8530 will lack the capability to tether and be used as a modem.
This will mark the first time that RIM has shipped a current generation BlackBerry without such capability, as the Virgin Mobile variant currently sold does support tethering, although via third-party applications such as Tether and PDANet as it is not directly supported by the carrier.
The reasoning behind it may be a purely technical one, as MetroPCS has decided to focus on its LTE rollout later this year instead of rolling out EVDO access beyond select markets which began when the previous BlackBerry Curve 8330 was launched in 2009.
When is Metro due to release the Blackberry Curve 8530?
I suspect the Curve 8530 will still support third-party tethering apps, MetroPCS is simply denying that they exist.
They may even ask RIM to block them from App World on Metro BlackBerries, but if Metro does anything overt, it will probably be a test for RIM to appease other larger carriers.
I really hope that it comes out tomorrow the 19th :/ it’s my birthday and I already have the money to buy it
what do they mean by lte ?
This is LTE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asxYJw7wlHE
Its pretty much 4G.
& Blackberrys & expected to ship to most MetroPCS stores by Friday. Very limited quantities though.
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