Okay, so after my first experience plinking around with Android on a little Pandigital Novel tablet, I decided I'd break down and buy a new phone. After some research, I decided that the Exhibit II ($199 @ Wallyworld) was the best value for a new phone, so after an online order with Ship-to-Store, I got my hands on one and popped in my SIM.

There's an earlier post from chlubb, complaining that he bought a used TMO-branded Galaxy S 4G and lost his T-Zones after one day. The same thing happened to my T679, and I think I have figured out why, as well as why other folks are able to use their Android phones with T-Zones. It looks like TMO specifically blocks TMO-branded Android phones from T-MobileWeb.

What happened in my case is that after I powered up my new phone, I had full-blown 4G access (well, 3G HSPA+, anyway) for a few hours. Then I suddenly lost my data coverage and got "Upsell" messages telling me that I needed a data plan. So far any reference I can find online to this issue has only related to use of TMO-branded Android phones. I could probably have picked up a used phone without TMO branding, but the problem there is that it would need 1700 mhz G3 capability. I'm not sure where you'd find a phone like that...maybe a Chinese clone, or a Euro-market phone? There seem to be plenty of both on eBay.

Since my Blackberry 9700 was a dead player (screen went bad) and I was sick to death of using my spare 8700g, I just wanted to get hooked up with the Exhibit II. OTOH, no way was I giving TMO one nickle more than I was already paying, so I switched to 4G prepaid. I wound up paying a little bit less, because prepaid doesn't have all those sneaky little fees. But I consider it pretty much a wash overall, since I have the TMO prepaid customer service to deal with now (if you've never had them before, it's sort of like calling the local Taco Bell for your cell issues), but I have unlimited text instead of 300/month.

Anyway, there's not a lot of info about this issue out there, and since I went through it, I thought I'd share. If you're getting an Android phone and you want to keep your $5.99 (or $2.99, or $9.99) T-MobileWeb, better do your homework. I can't find any info on whether or not unlocking would do any good, and if you're just thinking of popping in your SIM for a little "try before you buy", remember, that is not a definitive test. While that would show whether or not your phone is compatible with TMO's frequencies, remember that you can get hours or even a day of so of 3G/4G connectivity before you lose it.

FWIW, Arjay