T-Mobile's HSPA+ blankets 85 million Americans in warm '4G' comfort
By Tim Stevens 
posted July 21st 2010 7:04AM
posted July 21st 2010 7:04AM
T-Mobile® HSPA+ Network Now Delivers Broadest Reach of 4G Speeds in U.S.
Customers also will benefit from speed boosts on 16 of T-Mobile's available 3G devices and expanded availability of mobile broadband products in nearly 50 markets
BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, T-Mobile USA, Inc. announced the continued expansion of its super-fast mobile broadband network to more than 85 million Americans-the most pervasive network to offer 4G speeds1 in the country. T-Mobile® is on track to deliver HSPA+ speeds in 100 major metropolitan areas with backhaul in place, covering 185 million people in the U.S. by the end of this year.
"The aggressive pace of our HSPA+ network rollout means our customers can enjoy a better mobile broadband experience on more devices in more places today-but we're not done yet. Our first HSPA+ smartphone is coming soon and our footprint will double between now and the end of the year."
Now HSPA+ network service is available in nearly 50 major metropolitan areas across the country, with the newest additions including Austin, El Paso, Fort Worth, San Antonio, and Waco, Texas; Baltimore, Md.; Baton Rouge and Lafayette, La.; Birmingham, Ala.; Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, and Dayton, Ohio; Ft. Lauderdale and Jacksonville, Fla.; Greenville, S.C.; Honolulu, Hawaii; Indianapolis, Ind.; Kansas City and St. Louis, Mo.; Milwaukee, Wis.; Minneapolis, Minn.; Portland, Ore.; and Wichita, Kan. In addition, T-Mobile has expanded coverage in cities in previously announced metropolitan areas including Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C. 4G speeds are now available for customers in Alexandria, McLean and Reston, Va.; Anaheim, Burbank, Glendale, Irvine, Long Beach, and Ontario, CA; Annapolis, Bethesda and Chevy Chase, Md.; and Asheville and Hickory, N.C.
In addition, 16 of T-Mobile's current 3G devices, including more than a dozen smartphones,2 can benefit from enhanced speeds when they're on the super-fast HSPA+ network in all of these major metropolitan areas, including the newest smartphone available from T-Mobile-the Samsung Vibrant. And later this summer, T-Mobile will unveil its first HSPA+-capable smartphone. More details will be available in the coming weeks.
"T-Mobile's HSPA+ network now offers 4G speeds to more people than any other wireless network in the country," said Neville Ray, chief network officer for T-Mobile USA. "The aggressive pace of our HSPA+ network rollout means our customers can enjoy a better mobile broadband experience on more devices in more places today-but we're not done yet. Our first HSPA+ smartphone is coming soon and our footprint will double between now and the end of the year."
Complementing the network expansion is wider availability of the T-Mobile® webConnect® broadband products in T-Mobile retail stores in all HSPA+ areas including the webConnect Rocket™ USB Laptop Stick, the first HSPA+-capable device from a national U.S. wireless carrier and the Dell™ Inspiron™ Mini 10 with T-Mobile webConnect, T-Mobile's first netbook.
Also beginning today, T-Mobile is introducing the webConnect Rocket 2.0 USB Laptop Stick, an updated form factor of its first HSPA+-capable device. Featuring a new rotating swivel USB form factor, the webConnect Rocket 2.0 is designed to deliver the same home broadband experience on the go as its predecessor, so customers can surf the Web, download large files or watch video from a laptop anytime on-the-go with a blazing-fast connection. The webConnect Rocket 2.0 enables customers to take full advantage of T-Mobile's HSPA+ network in areas where the service is available-delivering 4G speeds.
T-Mobile network service is currently available in the following major metropolitan areas: Albany, N.Y.; Atlanta; Austin, Texas; Baltimore; Baton Rouge, La.; Birmingham, Ala.; Buffalo, N.Y.; Charleston, S.C.; Charlotte, N.C.; Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus, OH; Dallas/Ft. Worth; Dayton, Ohio; El Paso, Texas; Fayetteville, N.C.; Ft Lauderdale, Fla.; Greensboro, N.C.; Greenville, S.C.; Hartford, Conn.; Honolulu; Houston; Indianapolis; Jacksonville, Fla.; Kansas City, Mo.; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Memphis, Tenn.; Milwaukee, Wis.; Minneapolis, Minn.; New Orleans, La.; New York; Oklahoma City; Orlando, Fla.; Philadelphia; Pittsburgh; Portland, Ore.; Providence, R.I.; Rochester, N.Y.; San Antonio; Seattle; St. Louis, Mo; Syracuse, N.Y.; Tampa, Fla.; Tulsa, Okla.; Waco, Texas; Washington, D.C.; and Wichita, Kan. The HSPA+ network expansion is on track to reach 100 metro areas by year end. For more information, please visit http://t-mobile-coverage.t-mobile.com/coverage.
Only problem with this is, at least in my area (Salt Lake), T-Mobile has the habit of connecting these HSPA towers with T1's. 7.2-21 Mbps to the tower isn't much use if everyone has to share a 1.5 Mb pipe.
Technically LTE and WiMax are neither 4G technologies. WiMax is a tweeking of 802.11 and is commonly referred to by the IEEE as 802.16e. LTE on the other hand is based off of HSPA technology using MIMO technology to help push data speeds. So technically, all technologies are 3.95 or so.
I was very loyal to T-mobile for years up til last week. Barely getting 3g in a supposedly blanketed large city. Always roaming on the road where companies like US Cellular got full bars.
I'm happily with Verizon now and wild horses couldn't stop the signal I'm getting with them. Best wishes to T-mobile, but they're going to need more than this.
@Strathmore Bitter much? ; )
So maybe someone can tell me, but I've had 3.5G come up on my N900 plenty of times here in Phx. That's HSPA+- right?
well it's certainly not in San Francisco yet. Tried out some android phones in stores yesterday: att 2mbps, vzw 1.5mbps, tmobile: 50 Kbps. yep, it couldn't even find 3G, even when i walked with a sales rep outside the building. sad, i woulda went with the Vibrant.
@Psyclotr0n
for tmobile that is just a horrible building choice.. why would you have a store in an area with no 3g.. lame
Good day to all,
I would like you to know that I'm super happy as I have a super fast connection provided by Tmobile now. I used speedtest.net in my old & dilapidated G1 and I got 6.5mbps then 2.6 uploads in Houston then when I tethered it in my netbook then use again the speedtest.net I got this http://www.speedtest.net/result/853126141.png ( 25.84 MBPS down - 1.54 MBPS up ) Its mind blowing,then my latency_ping are between 45-60 in my location-shadow creek ranch in pearland (a bit outside of downtown Houston) then 70-150 in other locations. I did the test between 9:30am-10:00am as many people starting to use the service as my clear if that time of usage will be horrible.
I have CLEAR now in the house that I'm paying for $40/month as I bought the modem,so no leasing fee for me just $40/month. That internet of mine hit the highest was 16mbps in early in the morning between (2am-5am) but before or after that time I will hit only 3-6mbps download then 800-900kbps upload unlike Tmobile who has 1mbps-3mbps upload.
I'm always travelling around Texas & I found out that Austin,Houston,Dallas & San Antonio has the highest download speed to compare to any cities when I compare in Westcoast & Eastcoast cities.
Then if ever they will make more fiber optic backhaul, they can minimize the latency problems others have now.I used to have that problem in my location but now its GONE.
I'm not the kind of person wasting time to bash any company but now I will because I was with AT&T and they are full of lies company as I had my iphone 3gs & my wife & we never seen more than 2mbps connection the whole of Texas or whenever I am in California or New York. All PEOPLE WHO WILL SAY THEY SEE 3MBPS OR BEYOND (its not real), THEY ARE AT&T PEOPLE OR JUST ANYBODY WHO WANTS TO DEFEND AT&T EVEN AT&T DOESN'T CARE FOR THEM. Mine is real experience with my wife... I work in IT company & I always use the one that I think is not just cool & good looking but I can tweak & use the heck of it whatever it can offer unlike iphone that YOU can just unlocked & jailbreak (like what i do) but android & windows can be hack & put lots of fast & best ROM that apple iphone cant do. Our iphone is now an mp3 player in our cars, wants some pictures? Then my wife using the EVO as her company pay for her monthly then she just bought the EVO from Sprint. Its a sweet phone but the speed is not consistent & theres time it will be switching a lot of times from 4g to 3g. But still wayyyyy better than verizon & AT&T. Take note, only Tmobile & Sprint didn't have the cap now they will just throttle you if your beyond 5gb but no more paying overages (Tmobile then sprint in 4g mode-no throttling). Can Verizon & AT&T do that? Nope & never because AT&T made the worse decision in lowering the internet usage to 2gb for $25 (Tmobile has $20 for unlimited no cap with super duper fast internet versus 1mbps by AT&T) then Verizon is thinking now to do that also-per usage internet as Sprint & Tmobile will go for no capping.
Theres a lot of fanboys especially in APPLE stuff like iphone that has the basic stuff that was available 10 years ago but Steve Jobs will say its magical & unbelievable, he's the no. 1 liar in the world (I have a friend who still working in APPLE) I'm just new here in Texas as I'm from California & worked with IT company near APPLE. But Texas is the best place to make money now (hehe) then cheaper way of living...He said to me that Steve Jobs is very good in marketing hype but he's not the real guy who's thinking & making apple stuff to work, he's just the marketing guy of APPLE. Then all of his components are made mostly of asus & samsung (not them as other blindly knows) only software & design are theirs, I can attest to that, so wheres APPLE real product-NONE. They are just a big marketing & design company, if you don't believe go to California (to their main headquarter) see if they building any pieces of material to use for their products - none, most of what they are doing is just software & how to market their product. I was there with my friend & I know what I'm saying. Ask ASUS & SAMSUNG then FOXCONN, they will tell you that no parts are made by apple, they will give the design then what materials will use ( APPLE ) then they will wait for delivery and they will use their technology & manpower to build APPLE products ( FOXCONN ).
FANBOYISM towards APPLE is not bad but you should know the reality of what the company you like & love to what they really offer to you & if they lying to you. Even if APPLE will sell ipoop, those fanboys will still buy as long it has APPLE logo on it.
Back to Tmobile, they are the company to watch for & they are not like AT&T that will make advertising 1st before they will do the action, as tmobile will do the work & everything before they will announce in a simple way unlike AT&T like APPLE, they love marketing hype like shortage of Iphone in the 1st day as they know how many people will go & get them but they will not release many units to show they don't have unit to sell, believe me or not those iphone & ipad was made already & its millions now in FOXCONN factory but they will release only hundreds thousands then it will show to their system they don't have stock anymore even they have more, for the people to be more excited & feel the APPLE products are so good that people lining up & their hysteria in getting in store or online, thats MARKETING 101, YOU HAVE TO MAKE PEOPLE EXCITE IN YOUR PRODUCTS THEN THEY WILL THINK YOUR PRODUCTS IS SO GOOD THAT PEOPLE NEEDS TO WAIT FOR LONG TIME.
I hope people will get it now as I want you to be more well aware of what those companies been doing to you, they making you follow them even they are shortchanging you.
I want to share more my ideas, experience & knowledge about all these stuff - just don't go with the hype, test drive it - tweak it & if you feel it has everything u want & its more cheaper - go for it... you can email me at sir1honda@aol.com ( i can give you the best advice in telecommunications & computers stuff if I have enough time to answer )
To all those people bashing each other because you like this or that, think first & I suggest that research in google then don't defend what you have that you feel is not giving you the real deal. WE LIVE ONCE NOT TWICE , LIVE TO THE FULLEST ( get the best stuff that you think is appropriate & can make things more easier to you not just LOOKS & BRAND NAME of the products.
Always take care gurls & guys... GOD BLESS YALL...
The fact of the matter is T-Mobile's HSPA+ network can keep up with Sprint's WiMax network and Verizon's test LTE network. So if they can pass those two off as 4G, so can T-Mobile. Now give me that HTC Vision already.
Well... Verizon and Sprint has been calling their 2.75G tech 3G for so long so why not call 3.9G 4G? Seems they are rounding up.