We know T-Mobile is working hard and fast to do as much with their LTE network before year’s end which makes a new report unsurprising, but welcome. According to Light Reading, T-Mobile is ready to upgrade its 4G LTE market to 2x10MHz service in 90% of the top 25 market by the end of 2013. So David, what does that mean? Well, a good part of T-Mobile’s markets are 2x5MHz channels which in simple terms means slightly less speed. There’s a whole technical back story but just know that 2×10 > 2×5.
In an image posted on Twitter, T-Mobile’s CEO called out the competition by saying “Let’s see others run this fast” with screenshots of 60Mbit/s speed tests. T-Mobile acknowledged that some areas of New York City are lighting up the wider channel. “For testing purposes… we have been briefly deploying and testing 10+10 MHz of LTE in a few areas of the city,” the spokesperson wrote Light Reading in an email.
During these tests, T-Mobile “took down” it’s HSPA+ 42Mbps network and bumped it back to HSPA+ 21Mbps and then restored it right after the tests.
“In these areas during brief testing windows we have taken HSPA+ 42 to HSPA+ 21 — and then restored HSPA+ 42 after the tests.”
T-Mobile plans to update NYC to 2×10 by the end of this year, in addition to its HSPA+ 42Mbps network. As for the rest of the nation, the company plans on deploying 10+10 MHz of LTE in 90 percent of the top 25 markets by the end of 2013.
“Nationwide, we plan to deploy 10+10 MHz of LTE in 90 percent of the top 25 markets by the end of the year,” the spokesperson notes.
I want to go fast.