Orange have NOT dumped the MPx220...

[Guest McHale]

stopped at the Cingular corp. office yesterday and they confirmed what we have heard rumor wise. The MPx220 is slated for late September. Only one guy in the office had one and I never saw it but he supposedly loves it.

One thing I noticed is that when Orange pushes a new phone it's usually not too bad price wise. Cingular and AT&T seem to look at eBay before pricing their phones. The v600 was 300 with 2 year contract so I'm assuming the MPx220 will be about the same. I'm just guessing though but it would be hard to push it for much more than that. Either way, I'm getting one. My largest concern is whether there will be future ROM updates.

Also, (and this is the main reason for the post), Cingular is getting rid of all of their service techs in all of their stores. That means, if Motorola releases a SW fix for the MPx220 and don't release it to the public (cough, cough MPx200) Cingular will ship you out a refurbed phone and you will send in yours. Nothing like sending in the phone that you took care of to get one that some dropped in the toilet.

-Mc

[Guest martin]

p.s. I'm aware of what GSM stands for. Why don't you look up the origins of it and get back to us. In the meantime, I'll save everyone else the trouble: It's a modification on the VERY old US standard called TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access).

Multiple access simply means multiple users sharing a signal. Time Division implies the use of timeslots. PCM transmission had been around since the 1960s and that used Time Division (and Time Division Multiplexing).

Both the US and Europeans simply chose to use Time Division, rather that Frequency Division or Code Division, for their digital network standards. The confusion stems from the US actually calling their standard TDMA for a TDMA network :?

agree, GSM in Europe will be up for a long time. Hell, it's been what, 12 years? I don't expect any significant changes until the US has to bale everyone else out again...

It seems that any new networks being built in the US at the moment are either GSM or UMTS which are both European standards and the CDMA2000 roadmap to 3G is being based on the IMT-2000 standards proposed by the ITU. If you plan to"bale us out again" then maybe you could re-instate the UWCC :)

Here in the US, the FCC requires carriers to continue to support analog so that, and TDMA, and GSM will be up a while.

Yep, we have OFTEL as regulators. Luckily the old analogue networks were ceased a long time ago and AFAIK everything is GSM (pre UMTS of course).

p.s.s. AT&T and Cingular have been running UMTS trials for a little while now.  Here in the US, analog, TDMA, and GSM are operating on the same towers. What I'm saying is, you will need to use a CDMA phone when you want the features of 3G. You won't be able to swap a SIM from GSM to UMTS. You'll have to chose which technology you're going with. YOu can't have both (unless they make a GAIT phone like the ones we have here with TDMA and GSM).

Basically you will get a USIM which will allow access to both GSM and UMTS networks. This SIM can be used in any phone but will be best used in a 3G phone which allow calls and handovers between UMTS and GSM. When you are given a USIM you will no longer have a need for the standard GSM SIM :wink:

Anyway, as long as we both get the MPX220 and HTC Typhoon then who cares what standard it is :P

[Guest tipperal]

I can confirm that orange have not dumped the mpx220.

i visited the orange flagship store in birminghams new bullring on the bank holiday and thought i'd use the opportunity to ask. the in store trainer told me that the mpx220 was in the pipeline but orange were waiting for it to pass various tests before its release. he then even brought it up on the instore terminal, and sure enough the mpx220 was there as coming soon. although the release date was posted as july, i was told this has been delayed till sometime in october. there is also the possibility that within a couple of months the price could drop as low as free for users on contracts of £25 or more, just like the C500.

however in the latest orange magazine, it looks like the m2000 will be released before the mpx220, and another note is that the c500 does come with a docking station, contrary to previous reports.

i'm still going to hold out for the mpx220 though, but at least orange will give me the choice. hope this clears things up. :)

[Guest PsychoDave]

The carphone warehouses new magazine has the MPX220 as being released in october.

Not much other detail apart from that.

Looks tasty though :)