By European Droid heads are chomping at the bot wondering when their own version of the Motorola Droid will land on their favorite local carrier and it seems as though German’s with O2 will breath the first sigh of relief. A German Blog has unearthed a business guide that shows the phone next to the already available HTC Tattoo:
A google search also seems to show an image of the Motorla Milestone found directly on the O2 Germany website – what more evidence do you really need?
This is a GSM model so one could potentially import this for use in the United States… but you would have to live without 3G. And with that big ‘ol screen for web browsing, quick load times would be sorely missed.
Great … ~~
Why not Vodafone? Or at least T-Mo but no, it had to be shitty O2.
I really taught about buying the Sholes but O2 is simply a no-go.
regards,
Anon.
whats so special about this?
it’s the droid with a different name
I think it’s because Verizon has been strongly connected with the device so far and we EU have been lickin’ our lips over this device hopping over the sea.
So special is for two reasons: 1.) It is a proof that Droid/Milestone is coming to Europe (hoo-rah) 2.) Because it is GSM and not CDMA it can be used in US (AT&T and T-Mobile)
I hope O2 don’t get it in the UK – their service coverage is dreadful
looks like vodafone germany is getting it too!
Hooray beeing german is awesome!
lol, yeah :D
o2, vodafone and phone house.
but the droid campaign was awesome, so I’ve got to live with a milestone in my pocket.
why wouldnt the 3g work with usa t-mobile?? could that be potentially fixed??
Yup, GSM i would think just means it’s not CDMA. So would still be 3G/3.5G on a whole bunch of networks. Including tMobile and AT&T. Plus the rest of the world :p
Looks like the unlocked price might be around €500 after all. Really awesome.
No interest in O2 or a contract. I can get half-decent 3G service in Berlin from e-plus for €15/month.
yeah ! so milestone it is in europe then.
And hopefully coming to france very soon !
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I am so fed up to wait for a great android device i might pick up whichever is released first: x3 or milestone…
live without 3g???, hello there wifi!!!!
@ just askin
usa carriers use one frequency to upload, another to download. It’s either 850/1900 or 900/1700 as another american reader wrote a few posts earlier. 2100 is used by most of the world. SO you could only get edge in usa.
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@ till
you cannot mean 15 euros per month for unlimited data ? the cheapest over here for voice and unlimited data is 27 euros… and only for iphone.
you cannot mean 15 euros per month for unlimited data ?
Well, 5GB until you’re speed-capped. But sure, Aldi Talk:
http://www.teltarif.de/aldi-flatrate-jede-sim-karte/news/34958.html
Do bear in mind that e-plus is just starting to roll out HSDPA in Germany, so the network is still a bit crap compared to the three bigger ones. But for that price without a contract, I’m not really arguing.
Kinda funny how the US (Verizon even, for that matter) is getting a new phone before anybody else in the world. Usually stuff comes out in Europe first, then slowly migrates to AT&T or T-Mobile, with a select few devices eventually finding their way onto Sprint or Verizon’s CDMA networks. You know, if CDMA wasn’t so much better than GSM for rural coverage, I’d hate it so much, because it’s a pretty major factor in determining what handsets are made available.
The Official Press Release from Motorola
http://mediacenter.motorola.com/content/detail.aspx?ReleaseID=12085&NewsAreaID=2
http://mediacenter.motorola.com/content/detail.aspx?ReleaseID=12085&NewsAreaID=2
“Italy and Germany will be the first markets in Europe to stock MILESTONE”
Look here ;-)
http://mediacenter.motorola.com/content/detail.aspx?ReleaseID=12085&NewsAreaID=2
Sorry guys, we in europe will have pinch zooming…
@Brad: I wish that were the case. In the past 2 years it has been Asia which got the newest phones first, then it slowly went to Europe and as a matter of fact shipped over to the US (HTC Magic and Hero are good cases). I wish Europe would be the first market :(.
At least in Germany you have already a bigger choice and they’re obviously fast with the Motorola Droid/Milestone – in Switzerland we have two Android phones to chose from: HTC Magic and HTC Hero… great … :(
http://www.motorola.com/Consumers/DE-DE/Consumer-Products-and-Services/Mobile-Phones/Motorola-Milestone-DE
It’s coming closer… excellent. [[evil grin]]
“Chomping at the bot”? I’m assuming that was unintentional, but BWAHAHAHAHA, perfect.
Looks like it might not come with Google Maps Navigation instead going for MOTONAV instead – http://www.motorola.com/Consumers/XW-EN/Consumer-Products-and-Services/Mobile-Phones/ci.Motorola-MILESTONE-XW.alt
It seems that it will have multitouch in europe but no built in google navigation.
O² sucks for getting a contract+phone as they already have the new german mobilephonebusiness …
you do not! get your phone cheaper for buying it together with a e.g. 40$/contract for 2years …
Torn between this and the iPhone.
Someone please reassure me that there will be great apps on this phone?
So if O2 offering phone in Germany and Vodaphone to follow (which makes sense as Vodaphone is part owner of Verizon Wireless in US), how long will it be before Droid / Milestone arrives in UK and with whom? Any thoughts appreciated.
At last o2 are finally catching on, maybe i can get this if it comes to UK, cos samsung galaxy is just too much on a contract for me. o2 have best coverage where i am and t-mobile/orange have next to none, why is it they are the ones snapping up all android!
im willing to wait for the release of this even though my contract ends in 17 days!
3G frequences for GSM is the following:
AT&T uses 850/1900
TMobile uses 1700/2100
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3G
So unless a phone has 850/1900 you won’t be able to use the AT&T 3G network. If you have T-Mobile in the USA you may be able to get some 3G depending on where you are. I think I saw a phone that is coming out with the triple band of 850/1900/2100 which is the type of phone I would get. If nothing happens soon though I may just go to T-mobile. I hate being swedish living in the USA. If I never was going to Sweden, I wouldn’t worry about getting a GSM phone and go all verizon and get myself a Droid.
This is hard.
@ pete
there are already great apps, some giving more freedom to the end user that may never get accepted on appstore. However there are still no great beautiful games.
Check out:
http://www.androlib.com
http://www.cyrket.com
@till
sorry i don’t understand the translation by google; is it 15 euros for internet mobile access with gprs speed, until you reach 5gb in one month then you are speed capped (lower than gprs ?) ?
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over here in france the carriers are still expensive with orange offering not long ago a special iphone plan costing around 50 euros monthly for unlimited net (1gb then speed capped) and mail and sms, 2 hours of talk including visual messaging. Recently they lowered it to 37 euros, 500mo before speed cap, and unlimited talk to 3 orange numbers, but no more sms. But the normal non iphone plan doesn’t even include email…
http://mobile.orange.fr/0/accueil/Retour?SA=GEOFFRESFORFORIGAMI2
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That’s why i’d like to have the choice of carriers and go to virgin or bouygues where i could buy the 90 minutes of talk plan that includes for 25 euros unlimited net (500mb at 3g or 3G+ speed then speed capped), but no unlimited mail (that would be 28 per month). Only the iphone plan has unlimited email for 26 euros. Go figure. They launched recently a ecomax plan which includes talk time to europe and usa.
http://www.laboutique.bouyguestelecom.fr/3-universal-mobile-formule.html
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virgin offers for 26 euros 2 hours talk time and unlimited net (500mb then speed capped) and email but each sms costs 1 cent. Still the lowest cost plan to include email and 3G+ speed.
However on nov 19th they will launch a 29.99 euros 5 hour plan with unlimited net mail and sms.
http://www.virginmobile.fr/nos-offres/forfaits-bloques.htm
http://www.pcinpact.com/actu/news/53814-virgin-mobile-sms-web-illimites-sans-engagement.htm
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i just called virgin, and still no date for the droid in france.
Can I buy Verizon’s Droid in the US now and take it when I move to Germany next summer and use it?
Someone _please_ tell me that there is a spelling error in the acronyms on the Motorola site … “3G: WCDMA/900/2100, GSM 850/900/1800/1900, HSPA, GPRS Class 12, WiFi”
Please tell me that “HSPA” is supposed to “HSDPA” and I’m not going bonkers. I’m really hoping I can get one to import to Australia somehow, someway, sometime.
@Celeste Nope, you can’t. Different underlying technologies. The US and Japan are two of the only countries that don’t do GSM everywhere.
@swehes
according to the specs on the Milestone it should work on ATT here in the US.
Cellular:Networks: GSM850, GSM900, GSM1800, GSM1900, UMTS900, UMTS2100
Cellular_Data-Links: CSD, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA, HSUPA
Call_Alert: 40 -chord melody
Vibrating_Alert: Supported
I do not understand, why would you want to import this device. You might as well buy the droid.