Nokia Oro Visits FCC With AT&T And T-Mobile 3G Band

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop's phone of choice, the luxurious gold-adorned Nokia Oro, may be a bit outside the comfort zone of how much we'd like to spend on a smartphone, but it certainly looks like a good way to get some attention in a world of drab, neutral-toned handsets. The limited edition phone is first launching in the Middle East and Russia, followed by Europe and China. We haven't heard anything about a possible US release, but an Oro just made its way by the FCC, showing us a version of the phone with some solid support for US frequency bands.

The Oro, model RM-749, has the standard US GSM frequencies, in addition to 3G support on both of AT&T's UMTS bands, as well as T-Mobile's 1700MHz. The inclusion of the latter has this looking like it's intended for US (or Canadian) release, rather than being an import model (and shouldn't be all that surprising, considering the Astound is on T-Mobile). Neither carrier has made public any plans for the phone, so you may still end up paying the full, unsubsidized price (but then again, isn't that the point of luxury spending?), but at least you'll have your pick of carriers for service (merger notwithstanding).

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