T-Mobile’s LTE network might be accompanied by HSPA+ 84

T-Mobile has previously announced that it will be introducing its 4G LTE network in 2013 and today the carrier’s CTO, Neville Ray, revealed more details about its plans. Even though T-Mobile will be releasing its LTE network 2-years after its competitors, Ray seemed pretty unconcerned about being late to the party. Here’s what he had to say:

“Not at all. As we roll out LTE in 2013, we have the advantage of coming to market at a time when the price points on LTE devices and network infrastructure will be coming down and the performance of LTE devices and network infrastructure will be improving. We plan to deploy LTE release 10 compatible equipment, so we’ll be well-positioned and ready to move to LTE Advanced.”

While T-Mobile will be setting up an LTE network, it doesn’t mean that it will be abandoning its HSPA+ network either. The carrier might even be rolling out HSPA+ 84 (84Mbps theoretical download speeds) as well, though right now its focus is to get its LTE network up and running. The company also has no plans to shut down its 2G network, to keep its compatibility with its broad range of devices – including the iPhone which currently works as a 2G-only device on T-Mobile.

It sure sounds like T-Mobile has a direction to head towards to, despite its desperate situation a few months ago when it wanted to be acquired by AT&T. We’ll just have to see how things go from here. Anybody looking forward to T-Mobile LTE?

George Wong
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: 4g lte, HSPA+, T-Mobile