Galaxy S2 ICS update heading for T-Mobile at long last

T-Mobile has confirmed it has finally started rolling out the Ice Cream Sandwich update for Samsung Galaxy S2 owners.

T-Mo is the last UK operator to make ICS available for download to Galaxy S2 handsets locked to its network.

"We've been working closely with Samsung on this, and we can confirm that we will be rolling out the ICS update for Samsung Galaxy S2 from 22 April," T-Mobile told me in a statement.

A few CNET readers appear to have been able to download the update a little earlier than Sunday. Kumar Velayutham posted a comment on 20 April: "I am a T-Mobile customer and I got my ICS update today :)"

Another S2 owner, Fergus Smith, contacted me via Twitter on 21 April to say, "Something big is now downloading onto my T-Mobile GS2. Shame it took 6 months."

Three was the first UK operator make ICS available to S2 users on its network on 20 March, followed by O2 on 27 March.

Vodafone was due to be next, with a release date of 12 April but the update was slightly delayed -- landing at some point over the following weekend, and officially confirmed to CNET on the 17th.

The 17th was also the date when SIM-free S2 owners were finally able to get their hands on ICS, about a month after they were originally told by Samsung to expect it (from 19 March).

The S2 ICS update saga has been the opposite of plain sailing -- with false starts and poor communication frustrating S2 owners who've been super-keen to get their hands on the latest iteration of Google's Android OS.

S2 owners who had shelled out for a SIM-free Galaxy S2 to avoid being locked to any network -- and often in the hopes of being at the front of the Android update queue -- were the most vocally displeased with the process, judging by comments posted to this very website.

Their ire was not just a result of being left languishing near the very back of the update queue, but was made worse by initially being told by Samsung that the update would start to roll out on 19 March -- when in reality it took about a month longer to hit their handsets. SIM-free S2 owners were also roundly unimpressed by Samsung's communications during this period.

Are you a UK S2 owner who's still waiting for ICS? Let us know what mobile network you're on by posting a reader comment or updating our Facebook page, and check out what you're missing in my video.