After years of delays and assorted issues, T-mobile USA finally has rolled out 3G in New York City. We were told it would come out months ago. It didn’t. We were told it would be voice only. It wasn’t. We were told it will be UMTS data. It wont be. Wait, what?!
Yep folks, T-mobile’s phase I of their 3G launch involves only UMTS data. However, it looks like plans are to do a little upgrading on this fresh 3G network. T-mobile doesn’t plan on stopping with UMTS, but hopefully upgrading to freaky fast HSDPA. For those that don’t know the lingo, UMTS=fast internet, and HSDPA=really really fast internet. HSDPA usually gets between 1.4 Mbps and 14 Mbps. The hardworking 3G engineers that created this network report that HSDPA is paid-for, and installed on almost all 3G-enabled sites. So what is T-mobile waiting for? Well your phone can interact with that cell site at super fast speeds, but what happens after that? Within 8 weeks, minimum, T-mobile will have the necessary T1 lines in place, so whichever HSDPA cell site your phone connects to can be connected to T-mobile, and the internet at super fast speeds. Oh, and a little more exciting news for everyone, guess what these HSDPA speeds were tested on? Nope, not feature-full Nokia 2610, but a Sony Ericsson device which got over 1 MB/S during testing. Could this be a sign that T-mobile is bringing HSDPA Sony Ericsson phones to their lineup soon? Stay tuned to find out
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