T-Mobile and HTC to launch first 21Mbps HSPA+ smartphone in September

T-Mobile might be busy expanding its we-swear-it's-like-4G HSPA+ network to all sorts of metro areas in the US, but those theoretical 21Mbps speeds have been limited to those wielding WebConnect Rocket data cards, not any actual phones. It looks like that's about to change, though: a spokesman for T-Mobile parent company Deutsche Telekom told Light Reading that an HTC-built Android phone capable of HSPA+ speeds will launch in September, followed by another device in the fourth quarter sometime before the holidays. That lines up with what we've been hearing, as we've been told that the first device will actually be the leaked HTC Vision QWERTY slider (pictured above) that's been popping up in the wild lately. We're not so sure what the second phone will be, but we'll get there -- for now we're just stoked that another high-end Android set with a hardware keyboard will be making the scene.

[Thanks, Rod]

[emhorner22 Posted Jul 7th 2010 5:51PM]

@Sniggih
i could not imagine not being able to make calls because the network is crippled, you would think all of that revenue from the iphone they would be able to upgrade there network

[nefnet13 Posted Jul 7th 2010 6:31PM]

@emhorner22 Lots of folks use AT&T with no problems whatsoever. I get good coverage, good customer service, and reasonable rates compared to the competition (except for being charged to text, that cheeses me off).
My family plan contract was almost up, I could have jumped ship but I didn't. Didn't see any reason to once ATT started carrying the Pre +.

[VyseTheLegend Posted Jul 7th 2010 5:39PM]

According to the T-Mobile leaked roadmap (http://androidspin.com/2010/07/07/t-mobiles-end-of-the-year-road-map-leaked/), this phone will be called the HTC Vanguard, not the Vision.

Unless, of course, the Vanguard and Vision are one and the same.

[emhorner22 Posted Jul 7th 2010 5:45PM]

what makes you say its for att, it looks like a prototype to me. No markings on the front other than HTC

[arnavdesai Posted Jul 7th 2010 5:52PM]

Uhh isnt the N900 capable of supporting HSPA+ speeds already. In my area in Tampa. I get clear distinct signals between 3.5G,3G and 2G

[GeneralThade Posted Jul 7th 2010 5:57PM]

@arnavdesai

Nope. The N900 caps at 10.1Mbps.

[GeneralThade Posted Jul 7th 2010 5:53PM]

"T-Mobile might be busy expanding its we-swear-it's-like-4G"

You might want to blame Sprint for setting the standard and being the first bastardize the term 4G by calling their WiMax network 4G. TMO's HSPA+ has consistently and dramatically outperformed Sprints "4G" network yet only they're (Sprint) allowed to use the term 4G?

Tell me...if you were in charge of TMO's marketing department, what would you claim of TMO's HSPA+ network given Sprint's overly-ambitious marketing ploy?

[slipdisc Posted Jul 7th 2010 5:54PM]

Wont take long to eat through your bandwidth cap at that theoretical 21Mbps. But then again you could just use the built-in wifi for a theoretical 54Mbps connection with no cap.

In theory that is.

[tad604 Posted Jul 7th 2010 5:56PM]

Damn I guess I'll be holding onto my G1 for awhile longer.

[jayy337 Posted Jul 7th 2010 6:08PM]

@tad604

you're kidding right? I don't know how this isn't an upgrade from the 2-year old G1.

If the specs rumored are true then it'll pack a
*1GHZ Snapdragon Processor
*3.7 inch AMOLED screen
*keyboard (which of course is confirmed)
* 8 megapixel camera
*full HSPA+ support.
and i'm sure much more.

tell me your G1 is doing all of that now.

I know T-Mobile doesn't have the best phones around, trust me im still waiting on something to upgrade my Nexus One from, but if this phone is for them then its not horrible. I hope the one coming 4Q is better than this though.

[tad604 Posted Jul 7th 2010 6:40PM]

@jayy337 I was resigned to getting a Vibrant (coming out by the end of this month?). That seems silly with the hspa+ phones coming later this year. Thus I'll be holding on to my g1 a little while longer. I would love an hspa+ phone with specs like the evo 4g.

[jayy337 Posted Jul 7th 2010 8:15PM]

@tad604

Well we better hope that this is a seperate phone from the rumored "project emerald" one. That one is rumored to run a dual-core processor with a 4.3 inch screen and FFC.

[mandroid Posted Jul 7th 2010 5:59PM]

The keyboard will be like the mt3gs

[EggoEspada Posted Jul 7th 2010 6:04PM]

Damn HTC, greedy much. lol
First the HTC Evo 4G and now this?
I'll be mad if HTC does the first LTE device as well. I believe a Motorola Droid is more fitting. :)

[iansltx Posted Jul 7th 2010 6:21PM]

From what I've heard some devices (Xperia X10, HD2) are hitting above 7.2 Mbps in HSPA+ areas so apparently there's a 10.2 Mbps HSPA+ level, or maybe they're doing 14.4. Regardless, a full-Monty 21M phone is much appreciated...and this is from someone who had an Evo (albeit in a 3G-only area).

Also much appreciated? T-Mo actually launching something higher than GPRS in my area.

[Celz Posted Jul 7th 2010 8:47PM]

@iansltx That sounds nice.. My friends Evo was pulling in 4.9mbps in downtown L.A. made my Moment look lame lol

[cr3amy Posted Jul 7th 2010 7:26PM]

Anybody know what the difference in battery life will be between HSPA+ and Wimax?

[nesto Posted Jul 7th 2010 8:53PM]

I'm guessing who ever wrote the article is a at&t fan boy with the 4g quote....I think tmobile has the power to be awesome...I have a cliq XT (lame) and my best friend has a Moto droid. and under her phone her max download speeds are 2550 kbps and upload max was 670kbps while on my cliq I maxed out 5432kbps down and 1026kbps up....so tmo is fated than verizon now than verizon will be untill mid 2011 and faster than at&t

[GeneralThade Posted Jul 7th 2010 9:14PM]

I'm confident that this device will be dual core, as it's generally accepted that smartphones will need dual core to utilize HSPA+, which this device claims.

[ckeegan Posted Jul 7th 2010 9:14PM]

and currently available for purchase on Verizon, HTC is offering the very impressive Imagio, and the truly amazing HTC Ozone (with or without TALKS!).

[ObsceneJesster Posted Jul 7th 2010 9:43PM]

@cr3amy ....HSPA+ is alot better on battery than WiMax. HSPA+ is using the same exact towers and equipment it was using when it was HSPA. In more words or less all T-Mobile did was upgrade a few lines to fiber and upgraded some equipment. I havnt heard anything about HSPA+ being any worse on your battery than HSPA. But I have heard bad things about WiMax batter life.

[olypdd Posted Jul 7th 2010 10:40PM]

this is why I said I won't upgrade to a Vibrant. I want qwerty and this may just be the one I'm looking for. we'll see what's under the hood first. I like the motoroi too if it's got an upgraded processor even if it doesn't have qwerty, but I wish moto would make the screen larger like the N1 or droid.

[kenny goo Posted Jul 8th 2010 12:39AM]

Well given that Sprint's WiMax network has a theoretical maximum of 10Mbps, T-Mobile's HSPA+ network seems a lot more 4G then Sprint's WiMax does. I know WiMax as a technology can hit speeds well above 100Mbps, same for LTE, but right now it doesn't.

[yevgeny Posted Jul 8th 2010 10:08AM]

@kenny goo
The current WiMAX revision provides up to 40 Mbit/s with the IEEE 802.16m update expected offer up to 1 Gbit/s fixed speeds.

[kenny goo Posted Jul 8th 2010 2:23PM]

@yevgeny

I'm not talking about the specifications. I'm talking specifically about Sprint and Clear's deployment of their WiMax network. I believe it caps at like 10Mbps. I remember hearing that when Verizon's LTE network does a full scale long it won't be much faster then that either, even though the specification would let it get into the hundreds of Mbps.

[bigbudha Posted Jul 8th 2010 2:07AM]

t-mobile is actually thinking about going to 42mbps.

[zoby Posted Jul 21st 2010 8:39AM]

You guys are missing allot of the details and specifics. Rated speeds and technology capabilities are always trumped by RF Designs, Backhaul throughput, and Spectrum allocation.

Also keep in mind that LTE and WiMax for now only support VoIP which allows the spectrum they deploy the technology in to not have the voice impact and the related system overhead accompanied via soft handoffs and such.

At the end of the day think of it like this. You have three dragsters with varying horsepower. But the one's with bicycle tires don't stand a chance against the lower horsepower offering that has slicks and has been getting tuned and tweaked all season. Yeah, eventually the others will get there but not without more work.

And at&t has two cars on the line, and HSPA+ and an LTE in the garage...