So as expected the pending AT&T and T-Mobile deal will indeed mean that there will no longer be an AT&T and T-Mobile specific 3G data hardware. AT&T will "over time" as they put it replace the hardware that the T-Mobile network uses currently.
While this might have a good implication in that it would simplify the somewhat fragmented mobile hardware market in the USA currently, it will also have negative implications such as any older device you might feel attached to from T-Mobile will just no longer work, for anything but voice and oldschool (E)GPRS data.
AT&T stated today Monday that: "T-Mobile subscribers with "3G" phones will need to replace those to keep their wireless broadband service working. But there will be plenty of time to do that. Some time after the closing, it plans to rearrange how T-Mobile's cell towers work. The airwaves they use for third-generation services, or 3G, will be repurposed for 4G, which is faster. That would leave current T-Mobile phones without 3G. They would need to be replaced with phones that use AT&T's 3G frequencies. Ralph de la Vega, AT&T's head of wireless and consumer services, said this will happen as part of the normal phone upgrade process.
"There's nothing for them to worry about ... it will be done over time, in a way that's good for customers and good for AT&T," de la Vega said in an interview.
The whole process will take several years, he said.
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