There were a lot of posts about two weeks ago about T-Mobile disabling network access for third party application (like Google Maps for Mobile) on phones, and it seems to have been resolved for the most part. Seems they were blocking internet access beyond T-Zones for anyone who had only paid for T-Zones. The tier 2 tech support person I spoke to called it "stealing". Seems they also blocked access for those, like us, who pay for unlimited data access as well. After a LONG time on the phone with different tech people at T-Mobile I've got a pretty good handle on the situation. According to T-Mobile, the official line is that they don't support third party apps and if you want to access the Internet with your phone, you should buy a Blackberry or Sidekick. That is what the technical support kept telling me anyway.
So despite what I was told by T-Mobile, it looks now like if you have an unlimited plan, you can access the net again using your third party applications. What hasn't been mentioned much on any of the news sites is that T-Mobile is disabling their feature phones from allowing network access. Most if not all of the T-Mobile phones that we have profiled in the last 6 months have not allowed network access. The phones either have the network access permisions disabled or the phones simply will not connect.
Anyone out there have any insight into why T-Mobile would want to close off their network to 3rd party application and game developers? Unless it is some very poorly (in my opinion) take on the market and what customers want, I'm forced to suspect it has to be network related.
Are we really back to closed gardens again? We can work around it, even though it's a pain, but mobile games are going multi-player, applications are going networked and have been for a few years. Why would T-Mobile take themselves out of the eco-system like this?