T-Mobile extends HSPA+ to 50 cities
Promises handsets this summer and a move to 42Mbps next year
Published: 21 July, 2010
READ MORE: US | T-Mobile | HSDPA
T-Mobile USA may have no clear strategy for 4G yet but it aims to milk the HSPA technology for all it's worth to leapfrog the larger cellcos at last. The US' fourth mobile carrier says its upgraded HSPA network, which supports a faster peak speed than AT&T's at 21Mbps, now covers 85m people in 50 major metro markets. Mainly focused on data cards, the network will soon have its first handset, and an upgrade program to boost peak performance to 42Mbps next year.
In June, T-Mobile announced it had HSPA+ coverage in 25 major metro areas and it aims to increase this to 185m pops in 100 major markets by the end of the year. Its first device for the souped-up 3G technology is the webConnect Rocket 2.0, a USB dongle. In addition, it said 16 of its current 3G devices, including 12 smartphones, would gain some performance benefit from HSPA+ even though they are not HSPA+ enabled.
However, the maximum boost will only come with new products, and TMo promises the first 21Mbps phone later this summer. Testers have found an increase in data speeds on HSPA products, to a peak of about 4Mbps, while real world rates for HSPA+ gadgets are likely to be about 10Mbps in most scenarios.
Next year, it will move to the 42Mbps version of HSPA+, which has been pioneered by Telstra in Australia.
The latest markets to gain HSPA+ coverage include five Texas cities (Austin, El Paso, Fort Worth, San Antonio and Waco); four in Ohio (Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and Dayton); Baltimore; Baton Rouge and Lafayette in Louisiana; Birmingham, Alabama; Fort Lauderdale and Jacksonville, Florida; Greenville, South Carolina; Honolulu; Indianapolis; Kansas City and St. Louis; Milwaukee; Minneapolis; Portland and Wichita, Kansas.
For now, T-Mobile has not changed the structure of its data plans, even though larger rivals are shifting towards usage-based and tiered pricing. VerizonWireless has indicated it will introduce such patterns with LTE, though there are now reports it will make the move even on CDMA this summer. TMo has dropped its 5Gb data cap, facing a huge increase in mobile data traffic - it saw a sevenfold boost on its New York network once it rolled out HSPA+. Customers who exceed the cap will not be charged for additional data, but the carrier may slow down their connection for the rest of the month.
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