T-Mobile USA today HSPA+ service availability to more than 85 million Americans. T-Mobile says it’s 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.
Now HSPA+ network service is available in nearly 50 major metropolitan areas, 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.
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. It features a new rotating swivel USB form factor. T-Mobile’s webConnect Rocket USB Laptop Stick, was the first HSPA+-capable device and the Dell Inspiron Mini 10 with T-Mobile webConnect, is T-Mobile’s first netbook.
T-Mobile’s current 3G devices, including the newest smartphone available from T-Mobile, the Samsung Vibrant, can use the faster service, although they can’t take advantage of the faster speed. The Samsung Vibrant is expected to be available to T-Mobile customers beginning today. It’s T-Mobile’s flavor of the Galaxy S, and features Android 2.1, a 1GHz Hummingbird processor, WiFi, and a 4-inch Super AMOLED display.
T-Mobile USA will launch the first HSPA+ smartphone in September, reports Light Reading. The device will be manufactured by HTC and will run on Google’s Android operating system, according to a spokesman at Deutsche Telekom AG, T-Mobile’s parent. The handset will likely be the world’s first HSPA+ smartphone, and the first smartphone able to handle T-Mobile’s upgraded 3G network with peak downlink network speeds up to 21 Mbit/s.
Philadelphia was the first city to get the HSPA+ upgrade. Gizmodo found that it routinely delivered triple the speeds of most 3G nationally. T-Mobile USA has deployed HSPA+ with theoretical download speeds of 21 Mbit/s.
T-Mobile expects 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.
T-Mobile USA is also rolling out machine-to-machine (M2M) services in partnership with asset protection provider IContain and Asset Protection Products LLC. Deploying HSPA+ helps reduce latency and improve mobile data quality of service, says Light Reading.
AT&T plans to upgrade their 3G network to HSPA+ by the end of this year, according to AT&T’s chief technology officer, John Donovan. Providing the highspeed backhaul to all the cell sites may take a little more time.
In Portland, Oregon, my Clear USB modem is delivering 8.27Mbps down and 370Kbps up on an unlimited $40/month plan. It’s currently hooked up to my desktop and replaces DSL. Cellular data plans, without the spectrum of Clearwire, do not provide uncapped data service.
Only Clear is able to compete with DSL. Using a typical 50 Gigs/month, my cellular fees would be astronomical. Verizon will likely follow AT&T, charging close to $55/mo for only 5 Gigs/month, which would make my typical monthly bill north of $500.
