Last night, a bunch of strange tips slammed our inbox, all talking about the Motorola Sholes (otherwise known as the Tao, or more recently, the Verizon Motorola Droid.) “Motorola just tried to sneak the Sholes through the FCC!” they read, highlighting the fact that in this recent report, Motorola only mentions Sholes by name once – and it’s about as subtle of a mention as can be. But that, in itself, isn’t what seemed strange. What was strange was that the Motorola Sholes already cleared the FCC last month, in Verizon-ready CDMA form.
So we looked a bit closer, and sure enough, there they were: GSM frequencies. The first time the Sholes headed through the FCC’s torture chambers, it was rockin’ CDMA bands for Verizon’s network. This time around, it’s packed to the brim with GSM radio.
The important snippet:
This equipment is a GSM portable transceiver, which operates in the 850, 900,1800 and 1900 MHz PCS band. It also operates in WCDMA 900 and 2100 MHz and contains GPRS Class 12 and a 2.4 GHz Bluetooth function (Part 15.247). The unit may also be connected to a computer via a USB connection (Part 15 Class B Computing Device Peripheral).
Alas, the lack of AT&T or T-Mobile 3G bands seems to indicate that this is a European device, tested in the FCC only for the sake of keepin’ things legal while traveling.
[Clarification Update: We originally thought this was sporting AT&T 3G bands – but it looks like we just got a bit too excited and misread. GSM, yes. AT&T 3G, no.]