The nexus of Google’s mysterious new Nexus One phone is apparently Bellevue.

TmoNews is reporting today that T-Mobile will be the network powering Google’s new phone, which is apparently going to make its debut on Jan. 5.

A T-Mobile USA support page found by the blog says Google will sell the new Android-based device directly via the Web, confirming the story that emerged a few weeks ago in the Wall Street Journal. Bellevue-based T-Mobile will handle billing and rate plans for the device.

Manufacturing the new Google phone will be HTC, the Taiwanese phone maker with U.S. headquarters in Bellevue and its software lab in Pioneer Square.

The trio introduced Google’s first Android phone, the HTC-manufactured G1, in September 2008 but it was sold by T-Mobile.

Google also scheduled an announcement at its headquarters on Jan. 5, the day before the Consumer Electronics Show begins in Las Vegas.

Google’s boldly making an end-run around wireless companies with its own device, even though it’s simultaneously working to get more of its software and services onto their devices and networks.

But it’s also using old-fashioned P.R. tricks by launching just ahead of the show, forcing its new device into the conversations people will have about the array of new gadgets debuting in 2010.

Although initial reports characterized Google’s phone as an assault on the iPhone, it’s also a challenge to a wave of new devices built on Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 7, the software that’s now Microsoft’s big chance to regain its footing in the phone market. Google’s announcement takes place the day before Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer presents the opening keynote at CES.

Source: The Seattle Times