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FCC Grants Approval To An Android Phone With T-Mobile 3G

HTC announced its second Android phone, the Magic, at the Mobile World Congress conference in February. The device announced at the show was for Vodafone's network in Europe. It was widely expected that a variant of the Magic would come to the U.S., and the FCC has pretty much confirmed that T-Mobile will sell the HTC Magic/G2, too.

Technically, mobile phones can't be offered for sale in the U.S. unless they've been approved by the Federal Communications Commission. Phones emit radiation. It's a safety issue. The FCC tests them and their spectral absorption rates to make sure they don't serve up a harmful dose of radiation. This week, the FCC approved a phone made by Taiwan manufacturer HTC.

The version of the HTC Magic approved by the FCC has support fort 1700MHz AWS spectrum. Since that's the same spectrum that T-Mobile uses for its 3G network, it is reasonable to assume that the Magic recently approved by the FCC is headed to T-Mobile USA. The FCC also confirms that the device will have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, just as the Euro-version does.

What's not 100% confirmed is the name of the device. It looks identical to the Magic, but T-Mobile may sell it under the G2 name (it trademarked G2 back in October). Using the G2 name could help U.S. consumers identify with it more, as it is an obvious follow-up to the G1.

In the end, we have an HTC Android phone with T-Mobile's flavor of 3G. Perhaps HTC and T-Mobile will use next week's CTIA wireless trade show to make an official announcement.

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