Nokia 3310 arrival in United States trumped by carriers

Nokia 3310 is the talking point in the last week after HMD Global announced the return of the legend. Well, it’s not really a legend since it’s quite the different device than what the original 3310 was back in its day and is not really a return since it won’t get to the United States right away (if at all). The reason - the only carrier who still runs a 2G network is T-Mobile and they operate their services in the 1900MHz GSM band, which the the Nokia 3310 doesn't support (it relies on the 900MHz band instead).

Nokia 3310 (2017)

Nokia 3310 (2017) is a simple phone many would love to give to their grandparents or kids since it is practically indestructible. American children and old folks would have to pass on the 2G phone because it does not support the local 2G GSM bands. Even if it did, that would limit the carrier choice to only T-Mobile US.

This network connectivity limitation however doesn't apply to the other Nokias we’ve seen at MWC - Nokia 3, Nokia 5 and Nokia 6, all of which w we checked out at MWC in Barcelona. They all support the needed network bands so it would be up to negotiating the needed carrier deals to secure Nokia's re-entry to the US market. The United States is a market where most of the phones, smart or not, are sold through carriers and a lot fewer handsets are bought through Amazon, BestBuy or the companies’ stores.

Nokia plans to launch the devices in Q2 2017. Let’s hope it will manage to sort out the issue or the comeback won’t be as global as expected.

Via