Samsung Katalyst for T-Mobile’s home Wi-Fi

T-Mobile USA Inc. continues to expand its lineup of handsets serving the carrier’s HotSpot @ Home service, with the new Katalyst from Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
The quad-band, EDGE slider handset is priced at $80 with a mail-in rebate and two-year contract and includes a 1.3 megapixel camera.
The Katalyst is the first slider model and one of five handsets serving T-Mobile USA’s HotSpot @ Home service, joining the Samsung t409 (a flip phone), Nokia Corp.’s 6086 (a flip) (both priced at $50) and two colors of the Research In Motion Ltd. BlackBerry Curve ($250).
As December rolls to its mid-point, two of the four top-tier carriers tweaked their handset pricing.
T-Mobile USA cut the Motorola Inc. Razr2 to $150 from $250, five colors of the BlackBerry Pearl to $100 from $150, the Moto Krzr K1 to $50 from $100, two colors of Moto Rizr Z3 to $50 from $80 and three colors of the Motorola w490 to $25 from $50.
Verizon Wireless added the Moto z6c World Edition at $180, cut four colors of the LG Electronics Co. Ltd. Chocolate to $80 from $100 and three colors of the Samsung Juke to $50 from $80.
AT&T Mobility, which slashed its handset prices in half for Cyber Monday, returned its portfolio to pre-holiday levels and Sprint Nextel Corp. continued to resist the temptation to lure subscribers via handset discounts.