I learned the answer to this question when I asked it a few months ago. It's easy to make tri-band, quad-band, 8 band, or whatever band 3G chipsets but the problem lies in the antennas. Right now, the antennas (or antennae lol) are able to meet acceptable call quality standards (clarity, not dropping calls, proper tower handoffs, etc) with the antennas they have designed to work with 2 or 3 bands at a time but things get flaky when they ask the antennas to deal with more than 3 frequencies. It's not a case of trying to gouge us or trying to save money, it's simply a technical limitation. Just like how we had to deal with dualband and triband GSM phones once upon a time. I mean, they COULD do it now but at the sacrifice of call quality and I'm not really willing to live with that. And just like in the past, quadband 3G phones will one day be a reality. When I find the gigantic PDF report filled with all kinds of technical mumbo-jumbo and fancy cell phone jargon, I'll post it again lol.