So I emailed Tmobile CEO regarding 8x and LTE.....

[Mitchell Hayden]

Ok so I know everyone on T-Mobile is trying to figure out if the 8x is going to be updated to work on the new LTE network and if its not, why not since it is compatible. I am not sure if anyone watched the Cnet live blog for the press conference on Tuesday, but T-Mobile's CEO, John Legere gave his email address to show transparency. Well I took that to heart and email him today.......to my disbelief I received a response....kind of. I am still waiting on a full response and I will keep you posted!

Here was my email.

Good Afternoon Mr. Legere,

I know this is really the last step in the chain of communication, but I can’t seem to find the information that I am requesting or get a straight answer from anyone regarding an issue. I would first like to say thank you for the opportunity to be a T-Mobile customer. I have been with T-Mobile since 2006 and love where the company is going and have always had good experiences with T-Mobile and your customer service.

To give you a little background about me, I am a phone fanatic. I get a new cell phone at least once a year and am continually upgrading. To be honest, I refuse to talk to Tech support due to the fact I am able to find more information regarding an issue through my research than I can with a representative. I tell you this because when I choose a phone, I do extensive background research to make sure the phone is what I want and where I expect it to go.

I recently bought a Windows Phone HTC 8X, which is listed as being a flagship Windows device. When I researched the phone I paid special attention to the bands that it supports (listed on your site) to make sure that it would be compatible with the new LTE network that is being deployed, which it is. As I live in Kansas City, I wanted a device that would enable me access to that network. To my surprise it was just released that ONLY the Lumia 810 would receive an update to allow for LTE even though they both support the same bands and even use the same chipset. Is this the case? Why are you only updating the 810, when the 8X is supposed to be one of the flagship devices and is more expensive? Why is it listed in conjunction with the 810 as being 4G capable and listed as supporting the same radio bands?

I truly appreciate your company making a stand against other carriers regarding the cost of cell phone services, but it needs to extend beyond the service you provide, to the products you sell. Just as many customers are frustrated at having to upgrade devices in order to access the newest OS (Android updates for instance) or access new portions of the network that their old device could access but was denied an update to do so. I request that you reconsider your stance to only updating the 810 to access the LTE device and extend it to all current devices that are capable, as I am not the only customer who bought the 8X with the impression that (based on the bands listed as being supported on your site) the device would be allowed to access your new LTE network.

Thank you for your time,

Your Loyal Customer,

Mitchell Hayden

------------------------------

Young, Jason
To: Mitchell Hayden, Meyerson, Randy

Randy, can you answer Mitchell's question below?
Thanks,

JY

From: Young, Jason
Sent: Thursday, March 28, 2013 6:29 PM
To: Legere, John; Mitchell Hayden
Subject: Re: LTE support for current phones

---------------------------------------------

Young, Jason
To: Legere, John, Mitchell Hayden

Sure. Mitchell, I will follow up with a separate email.
Thanks,

JY

--------------------------------

From: Legere, John
Sent: Thursday, March 28, 2013 6:15 PM
To: Mitchell Hayden
Cc: Young, Jason
Subject: Re: LTE support for current phones

Legere, John
To: Mitchell Hayden
Cc: Young, Jason

Hi Mitchell

Jason can you discuss?

John Legere
CEO
T-Mobile USA

Sent by my T-Mobile
------------------------------------

Now the response chain of course is from bottom up. I am not putting to much hope in a real response, BUT maybe I will. I realize the email to Mr. Legere was not the best (I am not the best as writing) but just maybe it will get a point across.


UPDATE: 3/29/2013

So I received an email from Randy Meyerson who is the Director of Product Management. His email reads as follow:

Meyerson, Randy
To: Young, Jason, Mitchell Hayden

Definitely!

Mitchell,

Let me check in with the team and we'll get back to you tomorrow.

Cheers,
Randy
--------------------------------------

When I get the update later I will update the post. I have to take my twin girls to see the Easter Bunny says the wife so I may have to do so from my awesome 8x cell phone

 

[Brandon619]

hope you get the response, something alot of people (including me) and wpcentral should fine interesting to see them answer hopefully. i want lte on my 8x as well hahha

 

[jlangner]

Thanks for the info. As a t-mobile 8x owner, I am very interested as well.

**BTW, very well written in my opinion.

 

[Mitchell Hayden]

Ok so I received an Email back from Randy Meyerson. His response is posted below, and to be honest I dont really know what to make of it.

Mitchell

I’m following up as per my note last night. Unfortunately, the Nokia Lumia 810 is not upgradable to LTE. While it is true that it has a chipset that is LTE-capable in certain circumstances, the variant that was used in this device can’t be enabled for LTE. The HTC 8x at T-Mobile uses a Qualcomm 8260 chipset which does not have LTE capability.

The good news is that we have a number of excellent LTE devices coming and with our Trade-in program it can be quite easy for you to upgrade to an LTE device.

Hopefully this answers your questions. Please let me know if you have any others.

Regards,
Randy

-----------------------------------------------

Now I thought the 8x has the 8960 chipset in it. Is that correct? What I also found intersting is he says that the Lumia will not be updated either. I havent responded yet and wanted to see what you ladies and gents think i should say. I am going to include in the email a few suggestions for the Tmobile site to help customers deciding on phones. As we know, most people blame a carrier when they are not getting updates for their phone, So i believe they should add a section on their site that explains how updates are made for each phone OS and what role Tmobile plays in updating their phone. I also think that if they know an update is coming out for a specific phone, they add it to that specific phones information on the site, so when people are shopping they know ahead of time if the phone will be updated past its current OS. The last think i am going to suggest they add is specifically what Tmobile network the phone will attach to. For isntance, 2G, 3G, 4G and LTE. Its great that they give the bands but like in our situation where our phone has the LTE band but wont connect, it does no good to tell us the bands.

What do you all think?

 

[jlangner]

disappointing

 

[wmgreenjr]

Besides your 8X issue, I thought their announcement a few days back was stating that the 810 would ok for LTE - so are the backtracking on that now? I agree on the section about labeling phones like 2G, 3G, 4G and LTE...that should help avoid confusion.

 

[HNNNNNGHHH]

Sadly, this is a trend that T-Mobile is going to adopt for those who bought devices under their network, assuming that they knew about the switch to LTE. The HTC 8X and the Nokia Lumia 810 ARE capable of using LTE bands. T-Mobile just refuses to update them because they see little to no potential for Windows Phone. The Galaxy Note 2 is receiving the update which will grant the device LTE usage capability simply because Android is a extremely popular OS with wide acceptance.

In short, it all depends on the carriers' opinion on a device. If they see potential, they'll support it. If not, well let's just say that you've been screwed over.

 

[jlangner]

True...but it's not like we are stuck with 3G

 

[Mitchell Hayden]

True...but it's not like we are stuck with 3G

This is true, but LTE is much faster lol. The 4G I get only pulls 2-4M/s, so maybe it will increase here shortly.

 

[IngB]

I'm in the KC area using an unlocked Lumia 900, which by all accounts should be able to use TMobile's new LTE. The first day I set it up (three days ago) I had LTE access. It was very nice. Yesterday and today I don't have access. Here is the funny part...When I reboot my phone I will have email sync when it is on Edge and HSPA+ (which shows as 4G). By the time LTE comes on, I lose data access.
I spent a couple of hours on chat this morning and they said they will "remove content filtering" which will give me access to LTE. It is supposed to take about 2 hours to sync, according to the rep. I have 45 minutes to go. We'll see if it works. As of now, I'll just reboot my phone to check email.

EDIT: So far...No data.

Next day...no data. I called again and finally got an escalation ticket number. This was after about 4 phone calls and 2 chat sessions. We will see what happens.

 

[yoshiki2]

let me know any news...

 

[Mitchell Hayden]

I think the only way we will see LTE on a Tmobile branded 8x is once the phone is jail broken, if it ever is. At that point we may be able to enable LTE.

 

[eric12341]

Jail breaking won't help if it's not in the chipset to begin with. The good news is tho, with most T-mobile customers now naively going for the iPhone which is an LTE capable device, our HSPA+ speeds should increase to comparable levels.

 

[kth8x]

And no mention of hspa+ which is in my opinion just as fast as most carriers 4g LTE...... Real world side by side wit my friends on LTE I was right with them maybe a second or two behind