Alltel is the first carrier to upgrade their HTC Touch with EV-DO Rev. A. Sprint had previously upgraded the Mogul to the newer Rev. A technology, and it was only a matter of time before a Touch got upgraded. The HTC Touch and Mogul use the same chipset, and it is not a far cry to get them both up and running with Rev. A. Interesting though, is the the GPS was still not enabled. We know the Touch is GPS compatible, so it is not known why Alltel would opt to not enable it, especially considering Alltel’s track record of not disabling features on their devices.

Even though the GPS was not enabled in the upgrade, the new ROM does bring some more features than Rev. A to the table. There are a number of stability improvements, and connectivity improvements. A notable improvement is to the Bluetooth stack, it is not easier to pair with other devices. This is a long awaited fix, so happy news all around today.
[This new ROM] improves Bluetooth performance, fixing connectivity issues with some headsets and other devices
Sprint and Verizon have not announced their intent to upgrade their respective HTC Touch variants yet, so Alltel has beaten Sprint and Verizon to the punch. The new ROM is available here. You will also find instructions and reasons to upgrade at the provided link.
[Via Phone Arena]







“A notable improvement is to the Bluetooth stack, it is not easier to pair with other devices. This is a long awaited fix, so happy news all around today.”
Don’t you mean that “it IS easier”? That statement looked a little funny.
As for the GPS… The HTC PPC6800 (Alltel) DOES have a hardware GPS chip. I CAN NOT wrap my brain around why they haven’t enabled the GPS chip in it!!
That is really the only thing I care about at this point. The improvements they made in connectivity did seem to affect the EVDO connection. It seems to work much faster and more stable.
But DAMNIT!! I pay $600 for a phone (before rebates…) and they can’t even enable what would be the most sought-after feature of this BEAST of a phone?
This just DOESN’T make sense.