This cool phone (check out the nokia web site), will use the same car kit as the 61xx phones! Long live smart design. Microsoft and others could learn a lesson or two from companies like this that don't require "new" form factors or file formats with every new generation of product...

It's been in Europe and Asia for over a year. Looks like they develop their phones for local use first and then port them over to the archic US technology.

I know that the 88xx coming here is for TDMA which I think is the encoding that Omnipoint uses. But I don't thing that it is meant to work off of the GSM network that OMnipoint has, so I'm trying to bring one in from HongKong. I have seen them being sold in New York...does anyone have experience in this???

Mike

I got to use the phone a few weeks ago and I could have sworn that it did not have the same configeration on the base of the phone and also has a compleatly different form factor, and looked like it could not even fit into the cradle.

I'm sorry but the 88xx won't interface with the 61xx HF kits....NT

also, as are ALOT of the accessories, excepting batteries. Perhaps their web developer is loopy?

Mike,

Careful....TDMA is *descriptive* of the way GSM functions, but in the US it actually refers to a different [and incompatible] system, IS-136, which AT&T uses. Omnipoint (and all North American GSM providers) uses GSM at ~1900 MHz, while most of the rest of the world uses GSM at ~900 MHz or ~1800 MHz. The phones aren't compatible, except for a *very* few that are dual-band 900/1900 or tri-band 900/1800/1900.

Just make sure that whatever phone you get is for GSM 1900 (also sometimes called PCS 1900 in the rest of the world.) I don't know what Hong Kong uses, and it is sometimes possible in New York to buy stuff that doesn't work in the U.S.

It should only be a matter of time before Nokia brings it to the U.S. either way - I hope.....it's a very cool phone! Got my eyes out for the 7xxx myself.

DougR
(satisfied Boston Omnipoint subscriber and future '00 1.8TQMS driver)