The real reason the BlackBerry Storm doesn’t have Wi-Fi or tri-band HSDPA
You might have guessed it, but the reason is Verizon! We confirmed this a little while back with one of our really top-level sources (you know who you are!) and they did, in fact, confirm our suspicions — Verizon said hell to the no, we don’t play that up in here! Now, before the flamewars start, I will publicly say that although it might not be crystal clear, I love Verizon. Personally, Verizon has the best voice and data network in the US. Did you hear that? I lovez me some VZW.
With that out of the way, it’s pretty clear Verizon’s stance with Wi-Fi, but no tri-band HSDPA? We can only assume Verizon thought that with tri-band HSDPA, people would be unlocking these things left and right to use the devices on AT&T and Rogers. That would take out a decent chunk of their data revenue, but at the end of the day, are that many people who now can’t get a 3G Storm but rather a 2G one going to port to Verizon because of it? That remains to be seen, but all Storm first-hand impressions aside, this thing not having Wi-Fi at the very minimum is a major pain in the ass. Does anyone remember the “leaked” Expansys photo that had the Wi-Fi indicator in it? Funny, right? And to the commenters who will start saying, “It’s the best data network, you don’t need Wi-Fi!” You’re dumb, ignorant, and stupid. Plain and simple.
Jonathan S. Geller
Jonathan Geller is the founder of Boy Genius Report, now known as BGR. What began as a column on popular gadget blog Engadget quickly grew into one of the site’s biggest draws, and Jonathan soon detached the wildly popular column to create what has since become the biggest mobile news destination in the world.
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