[General Topics] rambo6:
Like many of you, I have been a loyal HTC customer since 2004 when I bought my first HTC product. I have been buying at least one new HTC product each year since then. However, beginning two or so year ago, HTC stopped selling unlocked phones with 3G Radios which worked in Europe and the U.S.

For example, a few years ago when the HTC TyTN came out, we U.S. customers could pay a bit of a premium and buy an unlocked HTC TyTN which had 3G radios which worked in the U.S. and Europe before the the HTC TyTN variant (Cingular 8525) officially came to the U.S. many months later. The same was true of the HTC TyTN II (AT&T Tilt or 8925).

Beginning with the HTC Rafael (AT&T Fuze) a couple years ago, the unlocked phones offered directly from HTC had no 3G radios for the U.S. Next, the HTC HD Blackstone and then the HTC Touch Pro 2 were offered unlocked, but without radios that could work on U.S. 3G networks.

This makes me very angry for several reasons. First, AT&T is undoubtedly the best GSM carrier stateside in terms of 3G coverage. (Hopefully T-Mobile will catch up someday). All U.S. customers (if they want 3G) have to wait for months to get the hot stuff. By the time the new device arrives, it's old news and out of date (the HTC Tilt 2 for example). AT&T will undoubtedly receive all the good stuff last because of its exclusivity with the I-Phone which makes all the other manufacturers want to release their new stuff elsewhere first. (I don't blame them for this.).

Secondly, AT&T's branding is absolutely atrocious. I'd like to get my hands on the idiot at AT&T who keeps screwing up perfectly good QWERTY keyboards with AT&T idiotic silver keys and insane layouts. The silver wears off and makes the keys hard to see in bright light. The layout is insane because they change the masterful HTC layouts and have even changed patters from their previous keyboards. The caps and function keys have been switched. Whoever is in charge of keyboard layout should be fired and not allowed to work in the industry again.

Business people who live in Europe and travel to the U.S. should be equally upset. Their expensive unlocked HTC products won't pick up a U.S. 3G signal.

Am I the only one who doesn't like this trend? I think not. We all need to band together and push HTC to putting a bunch of 3G radios in its products. Personally, I'd like to see some unlocked products which had the following 3G bands - 850/900/1700/1900/2100. Or what about 850/1700/1900/2100 so that it could be used on either AT&T or T-Mobile in the States and also in Europe? No, they cannot do that, the carriers would have to actually compete on quality of service and price rather than on what phone they have.

I suspect that the hardware is not a limitation. If it is the limitation, the manufacturers could make plug in modules that could go from one frequency set to another. I bet that the reason the radios are limited is due to the totally anti-competitive practices of the U.S. carriers.

This is total B.S. Every single HTC customer who travels between the U.S. and Europe should complain to HTC about this. Can we get some kind of joint letter, etc, going?

I'd be interested to hear all responses. I'm frankly fed up.