Late last year, we got news from our readers that 20+20 wideband LTE was starting to go live in Dallas, Texas. And not to be outdone by its neighbor, Houston is now showing signs of being upgraded to a faster network too. It’s the latest in a long line of upgrades we’ve heard about here at TmoNews, the most recent included higher download speeds in L.A. and Columbus, OH.
Like last week’s speed tests, the performance has increased from around the 25Mbps mark, and has virtually doubled. Thankfully, this time our reader, based in Houston, Texas sent a shot showing his device’s ServiceMode screen, which confirms the network being used is 15+15 (notice the 15MHz highlighted in the image).
T-Mobile has committed to reaching all the major metro areas with its super-fast LTE over the next year. For a few, that means 20+20, for many others it’s 15+15 and 10+10. Eventually, you’d hope (if spectrum allows) that 20+20 will be in all the major areas. Also this year we’re expecting old 2G networks to be replaced by LTE in a number of cities across the States. A movement which we believe is already underway.
However, this Houston spotting isn’t the only LTE improvement we’ve been informed of this weekend. In fact, we’ve seen a good number. Here’s a quick glance at some of the locations to get a speed-bump in recent times:
Our reader in Atco, New Jersey noted that speeds for him had also more than doubled in recent times. So, although the speeds don’t quite match the <70Mbps we’ve seen elsewhere, the improvement from around 15Mbps up to almost 40 is notable.
Considering the volume of test results we’re being sent, it’s clear T-Mobile is doing some extensive network upgrading across the U.S. Although 20+20 is seemingly limited to a handful of cities right now, 15+15 is showing up in many areas. It’ll be interesting to see how these upgrades affect “official” network comparisons over the next 6-12 months. With T-Mo already being the fastest – according to SpeedTest results – how much faster than its competitors can it get?
Thanks to everyone sending in LTE news. Keep ’em coming.