A lot has been said in the wireless world about what life will be like in a post 3G environment. Fourth generation technology offers significant speed improvements and hopefully significantly improved technology capable of enhancing reception in areas that have been all too often problematic, say inside a building?! Sprint, AT&T and Verizon have all committed themselves publicly to fourth generation networks with Sprint leading the pack promising a Wimax rollout before the competition. However, our beloved magenta has been all too silent in their plans for post 3G happenings. We know that our parent company Deutsche Telekom has chosen the LTE path and has begun testing with that regard. T-mobile CTO Cole Brodman speaking at the Cliq unveiling promised 250 million pops covered by the magenta 3G network by year’s end. Also of note was the statement that T-mobile would begin upgrading to HSPA+ service by the end of the year as well. Where this will happen first and how long will it take to upgrade are questions we all want to ask and this Friday, we may get some answers.   T-mobile SVP of Engineering and Operations Neville Ray will be delivering a keynote address at Yankee Group’s 4G-world conference. From the email I received, “The presentation will discuss T-mobile’s plans to begin rolling out or next generation network solution, HSPA+, before the end of the year. HSPA+ enables faster speeds and better performance for our customers and is T-mobile’s bridge to 4G.”

Well there we go the bridge to 4G. I welcome all information regarding T-mobile’s plans to enhance their network to a fourth generation offering, no matter if they only offer bread crumbs this Friday. Any indication in the direction they choose is a sign of life and continued effort to take T-mobile USA to the top. BTW, our invitation for this conference must have gotten lost in the mail, so hopefully somebody with a laptop or pen and paper will be covering this event so we can get all the facts on T-mobile’s keynote.