The launch date for the long anticipated Curve 8900 on T-Mobile has been moved up a full week according to a leaked employee information slide.

Image courtesy of TMoNews

The BlackBerry Curve 8900 is now expected to launch ahead of the Samsung Memoir on February 11th with the specifications finalized at a landscape HVGA (480×320) display, quadband GSM/EDGE 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, speakerphone, microSDHC expansion slot, media player,  Wi-Fi with UMA support for HotSpot @ Home, Bluetooth with stereo audio support, and GPS support via built-in transceiver.

Pricing details are not immediately available at this time.

Just a quick reminder, we’ll be live at Macworld Expo, starting tomorrow around 5 AM Pacific time. Tune here to catch the entire keynote live, as well as the show floor throughout Macworld.

And, on Thursday, the coverage will turn to CES, as we cover the show live for the first time.

On top of all that, we have a new site to launch, one we think will be even more powerful than PhoneNews.com is today (hint: look at the top of the site). Stay tuned later today for the announcement.

Sprint recently settled an Early Termination Fee (ETF) class action suit. Unfortunately for consumers, it’s a very raw deal… except to the class action attorneys involved.

And, it’s quite broad, covering customers from 1999 all the way to 2008.

The settlement makes a bunch of branching paths, but basically it says that you are entitled up to only a $90 credit, and in most cases a $25 to $35 credit, if you paid an ETF on a Sprint account. If you can’t provide the required documentation, all you can get is a waiver for the activation fee on a new Sprint account (and 100 bonus minutes for a year on the new plan).

But, worse, the terms are riddled with exceptions. For example, a customer who is in collections over an ETF may not be entitled to get even a paltry $25 credit on that debt, if Sprint has already sold the debt to a third-party (collection agency). In that event, a Sprint customer is only entitled to the waiver on a new activation fee, on a new plan.

And, of course, you can’t sign up for new service until you pay off the old ETF. Injury, meet insult.

PhoneNews.com suggests that you object to this proposed settlement, based on the extremely poor conditions of this settlement, including (but certainly not limited to) no option for Sprint to arbitrate ETFs charged… ETFs that consumers have legitimate ongoing objections to.

In short, the settlement doesn’t come close to amicably refunding consumers, hurts consumers who may already be in collections, and provides no recourse for the consumer to have their case examined.

To object to the settlement, you simply need to write a brief letter to the court, explaining why you think this is an unfair settlement for the consumer. It doesn’t have to be in legalese at all. You’ll then need to print two copies of it, and send it to the following addresses:

District of New Jersey, 50 Walnut Street, Newark, New Jersey 07101

Class Counsel at Carella, Byrne, Bain, Gilfillan, Cecchi, Stewart & Olstein, Attn: Sprint ETF Settlement, 5 Becker Farm Road, Roseland, New Jersey 07068

Quite damning for the settlement attorneys (and/or the claims administrator), is that the consumer-friendly version of the settlement web site omits the address to the court… preventing consumer’s objections from being heard.
 
It’s also worth noting, that this settlement web site may be violating the law in and of itself. The header of the site states: “Please note: do not call or write to Sprint Nextel, their attorneys or the Court regarding this settlement.” A settlement web site is forbidden from advocating against asking users to not object to a settlement, which you must contact the court to do. Furthermore, class action attorneys are often contacted by settlement class members when a claims administrator fails to do their job.
 
One thing is quite clear, either the settlement site was a rush job riddled with errors, or it was designed to prevent consumers from objecting to the suit. That’s all the more reason for you to take 10 minutes out of the day, and ask the judge in this case to throw out this raw deal of a settlement.

Update: The settlement web site has been updated, correcting the errors and egregious violations that we noted. However, we still encourage you to send in an objection letter to the court, if you want to help improve the terms of the settlement for consumers.

In a regulatory filing on Friday, Verizon has revealed that it expects to finalize and close the Alltel acquisition on Friday, including the absorption of $22.2 billion in debt, $17 billion of which will be covered by commitments from eight institutions despite the current financial situation.

Verizon had purchased Alltel for $5.9 billion in equity from its former owners in TPG Capital and KPMG with concessions made (such as selling off overlapping markets) to earn the approval of the Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission, and FCC.

Verizon is expected to locate a new call center in Little Rock, Arkansas while eliminating up to 3000 white collar jobs made redundant as a result of the purchase, while confirming more specific details on Friday.

In a move long speculated since the announcement of the new Symbian Foundation last year, UIQ Technology CEO Johan Sandber announced to the Swedish newspaper Sydöstran that the company has declared bankruptcy and would begin liquidation proceedings after failing to secure additional funding from the companies’ principal ownership between Sony Ericsson and Motorola, who purchased a 50% controlling interest just last year.

UIQ Technology was the product of the former Ericsson borne out of the Mobile Applications Lab initiative that led to the first European mass market touch display smart device platform, but never gained much traction outside of Europe and dedicated enthusiast communities due to its high development curve and low carrier support.

Sony Ericsson was the first major licensor of the platform and released the P800 smart device in 2002, following it up with the P900/P910 in 2004.  Motorola and BenQ followed with the A920/925/1000, Japanese market M1000 and the P90 respectively.  By 2006, Sony Ericsson was the only major licensor in the platform until 2007 when Motorola announced the Z8.

2008 marked a transistion year for UIQ as Motorola and Sony Ericsson announced the Z10 and G800/G900 handsets, but when Nokia announced the formation of the consolidated Symbian Foundation in July, any hope of seeing further UIQ development was dashed when the company was told that it would only receive funding for two months beginning in November from its principal investors while new buyers were sought out.

Now with 200 people laid off, the company has had no choice but to declare bankruptcy in order to cover close to eight years in losses and expenses, with former employees going as far as blaming the closure on poor executive management.

The FCC has revealed the first rendering of an as yet unannounced 3G USB modem for T-Mobile which will be manufactured by Huawei.

The Huawei UMG181 features a retractable USB connector with an internal antenna while supporting dual-band GSM/EDGE and 3G HSPA access on 1700 Mhz.  The modem  is expected to come out later in the first quarter with no pricing or availability details available at this time.

In a report filed by the Chicago Tribune, Sprint representatives have made statements to the effect that Chicago will be the next city to go live with the rebranded Clear WiMax service after Portland relaunches with the capability to activate any WiMax device, which is expected to be announced during CES.

The timeline for the Chicago launch has been the biggest point of contention, as the service was supposed to launch under the former XOHM brand before the completion of the Clearwire merger by the end of last year, with active markets such as Houston and Dallas/Ft. Worth having yet to be officially announced or given a revised timetable for launch as a consequence of the merger.

With Sprint representatives now placing the Chicago launch during the second half of the year, it remains to be seen if the service will still be able to compete against Verizon’s accelerated LTE launch occuring around the same time in terms of publicity and availability.

Nokia has opened up a product page for the as yet unannounced Nokia 7510 Supernova clamshell featuring prominent T-Mobile branding.  The defining feature of the handset is its outer display which is hidden until activated, providing an entertaining light show and turning itself off when not needed along with a push to flip button.

The complete featureset consists of quadband GSM/EDGE, 2.2 inch QVGA internal display, 2.0 megapixel camera with video recorder, Series 40 with support for Symbian applications, FM radio with RDS support, Bluetooth with stereo audio support, HTML browser, media player, speakerphone, audio messaging, microSDHC expansion slot, Nokia Maps, and support for Ovi services.

T-Mobile has not confirmed the clamshell in its future lineup at this time.

According to a report on Open for Business, AT&T has been  migrating W-CDMA 3G access to the 850Mhz band previously assigned to its venerable GSM/EDGE service starting as far back as the beginning of last year, with GSM/EDGE service being moved back to 1900 Mhz.

The markets affected most by the band swap so far have been in the Midwest and the East and West Coasts where the most issues have been reported with 3G coverage and stability.

The reason for the switch is being tied to iPhone 3G sales as a way to improve coverage for its underdeveloped 3G network.  

While this may offer a short term coverage increase for 3G users, many users in areas not equipped with 1900 Mhz cellsites will be hit with a massive coverage penalty that in some cases will cause customers to not have any coverage at all depending on the market and service area.  

While some will suggest that people affected roam on T-Mobile, most of the markets affected do not feature reliable T-Mobile coverage, and to add insult to injury, AT&T is suggesting to any customer that inquires about the reduced GSM coverage to turn around and purchase a 3G phone at their expense in order to regain the lost coverage as a result of the band swap.

In a prepared statement, AT&T’s executive director of analyst relations Mark Siegel denied that AT&T was forcing customers to upgrade to 3G handsets such and also denied that AT&T representatives were advising customers to move away from GSM equipment to 3G equipment.

It remains to be seen whether AT&T will actively address the issue or will continue with its internal policy of crude stopgaps in order to avoid the necessary expansion of 3G service in order to live up to its network coverage and other widely advertised claims, lest it face a potentially massive customer backlash.

Sprint’s most recent TV campaigns have focused on promoting Sprint’s Simply Everything plan. However, some of you may have noticed the advertised savings sharply increase. And, it’s not because of rate hikes at the competitors.

At first, Sprint advertised that you can “… save $240 per year versus comparable plans at AT&T and Verizon.” This actually appeared to be a bit low to us, but Sprint’s estimates were being conservative. Sprint compared their $99 Simply Everything plans, to the $99 unlimited voice calling plans at Verizon and AT&T. They then added in the cost of unlimited data, at $20 per month.

Now, Sprint advertises that you can “… save up to $480 per year…” Emphasis on the up to. Under the new math, Sprint calculates in the cost of AT&T and Verizon’s Mobile TV and GPS offerings, at $10/month each.

Nevertheless, Sprint’s math is indeed correct. However, it’s still conservative. Sprint is not including the cost of text messaging, nor are they factoring in that BlackBerry and Smartphone users are also covered under the unlimited data (which costs $30/month at AT&T and Verizon.

So, we decided to see how far Sprint could really stretch the savings. Factoring in $20/month for text and picture messaging, $30/month for smartphone data, $10/month for GPS navigation, and $10/month for mobile TV… that comes to a savings of $70 per month for the most tech-savvy of customers. That’s most of the cost of Simply Everything without even factoring in the voice portion.

More importantly, that calculates out to a savings of $840 per year over the same plans on AT&T and Verizon. However, Sprint still leaves tethering/phone-as-modem out of Simply Everything… tarnishing an otherwise stellar marketing campaign.