T-Mobile Project Black To See T-Mobile USA iPhone Release?

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In our posting yesterday (see: T-Mobile Project Black Set to Hit End of Month? [Project Black Insider Info Suggests New T-Mobile 'Revamp' Ramping Up, Staff in Training Now]), apart from advising that T-Mobile’ Project Black is set to roll out at the end of this month, we advised that we are gaining further insider reports and that we’d bring you an update the moment we felt assured enough to do so – but we did say it would be pretty exciting news.

Now, having received the same information from no less than three separate inside sources, we feel reasonably happy to report on what we’re hearing but, of course, at this juncture we need to stress that, whilst getting this info from three individual, unrelated sources leaves us confident enough to post this information, we are yet to gain anything by way of absolute proof. That said, we may well be able to bring you this within the next day or so (hopefully – we have been advised that more in depth info is headed in our direction).

Okay, so what’s the big news? Why have we held back until now? In short, following on from one patently reliable source, we have now heard from two others that T-Mobile’s Project Black, aside from offering up a new range of Nokia and Samsung handsets (as well as HTC handsets, of course) will also see the introduction of Apple’s iPhone to the US network. Really?

An initial report we received yesterday, which has now been backed up by two more reports received early this morning, all state that TMO employees who are already well versed with Project Black are telling their friends to hold back on purchasing the iPhone until the 25^th of this month as it will be hitting TMO complete with 4G access speeds.

Should we treat this as rumour? Yes. But, and it’s a big but, I should stress once again that we have held back on this until now as three separate contacts have now mentioned the iPhone and 4G connectivity and this strikes us now as being worth reporting – not least merely on the basis of interest value. We are also being told that there isn’t just a $50 all-in plan (known as the “Cricket Killer”, incidentally) but that there will be “all new pricing across the board” – and this certainly fits with our initial report which stated that Project Black is more than any one thing and that it’s in fact a “company turnaround”.

On and above the three reports we’ve received from purported insiders, this has been further backed up with two mails from individuals also stating that they have TMO friends who are telling them to hold back on the iPhone till the 25^th (yes, that date again).

Here’s but two samples of info received:

“TMO.. Launches Oct 25th, 4G, including the iphone @ 4g speeds and all new pricing across the board.”

On seeking further clarification, we also received this:

“I had my TMO friend tell me to specifically wait because I was going to activate my iphone w/ data only service that they would have the iphone and 4G speeds, and that he couldn’t really tell me anything but that I’d be very upset if I didn’t wait until Oct 25th.”

That’s five contacts, consisting of three purported insiders and two apparent friends of insiders, all of whom are seemingly unrelated, all of whom mention a TMO iPhone, 4G speeds, and a rollout set for 25^th October.

Make of it what you will – we are in two minds concerning a TMO US iPhone release ourselves – but we hope to get further details this weekend from an “authorized reseller” who’s just about to be briefed so, once again, stay tuned as we’re hoping to bring you more and we are doing all we can to gain scans/photos of model lists/price plans by way of backup (if you are a TMO employee and happen to be able to let us have something along those lines yourself, please do contact us – once again we should stress that your anonymity is totally assured).

We say 4G connectivity and all new price plans across the board, including the reported $50 all-in plan, are pretty much assured at this juncture. New Euro phones, again, pretty much assured. Euro comparable pricing, again, assured. A TMO USA iPhone? We are waiting to gain absolute proof before committing on this one as there are (were?) extenuating circumstances (moreover its more likely that TMO are going to push the latest Android handsets), but we are doing all we can to offer up absolute proof either ways.

[Special thanks and appreciation to: J., T., A., An, P.]

UPDATE 18/10/09: Confirmed as suspected (and as we surmised above) no iPhone coming at this juncture.