That's right, kids, T-Mobile launched 3G data in Vegas this morning. The 1700MHz AWS 3G network went live for phones that can hit the UMTS 3G data stream, and if your phone is one of those, you may want to look for the pretty little icon and start doing some Intertron browsing. T-Mobile still expects to hit another 20 markets this year (along with some new handsets), so if you're not in Sin City, be patient -- 3G is coming.

RCR had the opportunity to fiddle around with the live, fully functional DVB-H trial Hiwire is running in cooperation with T-Mobile in Las Vegas, and if the phrase "ready for prime time" is any indication, it sounds like they liked what they saw. Using an LG U900 for service, RCR ran around Sin City comparing Hiwire's efforts to Verizon's MediaFLO-based VCAST TV -- a service that's been live for much of this year -- and found that the two were pretty much a wash for user experience. Hiwire's 24 channels of mind-numbing entertainment bests VCAST TV's lineup by a wide margin, but VCAST TV took significantly less time to switch between those channels (2 seconds compared to about 5); interestingly, though, VCAST TV seemed to be about 5 seconds delayed behind Hiwire, so it's a tradeoff. Of course, as RCR points out, Hiwire suffers from the same fundamental problem as VCAST TV -- subscribers would be paying for pretty much exactly the same content they're already paying for on their home televisions, albeit on a heck of a lot smaller screen -- so even if the service looks ready for commercial launch, is anyone ready to buy?

It's been a few months since we've heard anything about these guys, but it seems that Hiwire is still going full throttle in its efforts to compete with Modeo and the MediaFLO juggernaut to win the hearts and minds of American mobile TV watchers-to-be. Following a joint trial with T-Mobile late last year, Hiwire's back for more action in Sin City (sans carrier this time, it seems) rocking a full 24-channel lineup on its swath of 700MHz bandwidth, besting Verizon's MediaFLO-based offering by a healthy sixteen. There's still no word on when -- if ever -- Hiwire's going to go commercial with this thing, but it's good to hear they're still kicking around nonetheless.

So we're here in Vegas for the opening ceremonies of CTIA, which officially opens its doors tomorrow. We checked out Samsung tonight at the Official CTIA Press Rception; they didn't have a whole lot of anything to play around with that we haven't already seen before (the D807 and T719 were present), but we also caught a quick glance of the A930 from the last time we were in Vegas: CES. More hands on pics after the break, but unfortunately we couldn't snag the new T509 and there just wasn't a whole lot new to show you from Sammy (at least not right now, anyway).