A rumor surfaced yesterday that suggests the T-Mobile G2 was receiving an update to enable WiFi hotspot functionality and add WiFi-calling to this premiere Android handset. While anxious customers waited for this important update to arrive, T-Mobile reached out with an official statement of its own that is decidedly ambiguous.
“Wi-Fi Calling and tethering/Wi-Fi sharing are not currently supported on the T-Mobile G2. T-Mobile knows these features are important to consumers and we’re working to deliver them to G2 users in the future. We have nothing further to announce at this time.”
Until another announcement is made or the update is confirmed to be hitting handset en masse, G2 owners will have to be content with the current state of their handset. While these owners may be disappointed that Magenta did not confirm the update was dropping today, this official statement is still encouraging. The wireless carrier hints that both of these features will debut on this premiere handset which is good news for its dedicated owners.
Those with a G2 have been waiting and wondering if their newly released handset will be one of the lucky few to receive the new WiFi calling feature that the nation’s #4 carrier announced last week. The new WiFi calling will be available on its Motorola Defy, new MyTouch handset, and other un-named Android handsets in the future. Based upon the statement above, chances are good that the G2 will be one of these “un-named handsets” and WiFi calling will be added soon.
Mobile WiFi hotspot service was a given on the G2 as the Android handset launched with the application in place. Unlike its DROID X cousin, the mobile hotspot feature was disabled at launch with the assumption that it would be enabled in a future update. This statement confirms that mobile hotspot support is on its way but T-Mobile is apparently not ready to commit to a solid roll-out date. We all know how those dates can slip and perhaps T-Mobile does not want to make promises that it can not deliver.
[Via Phonescoop]