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May 30, 2010

T-Mobile USA continues to pressure larger wireless carriers rolling out its HSPA+ network in a number of densely populated markets in the Northeast, including New York City, parts of New Jersey, areas of upstate New York, Connecticut and Providence, R.I., as well as in Memphis, Tenn. and Las Vegas, Nevada.

And there appears to be no end in sight as to what lenghts the small mobile operator is willing to go to make this happen faster.

The newly available markets join previous launches in Philadelphia and the Washington, D.C. area. In all, T-Mobile says the 21 megabit per second version of the HSPA+ standard now covers more than 30 million potential customers with plans to cover up to 100 large metro areas and 185 million pops by the end of 2010.

The wireless carrier had previously announced its HSPA+ plans at the CTIA trade show in March where it showed off a USB modem compatible with its enhanced network. At that time, speed tests using the device on a laptop computer showed download speeds of around 8 Mbps and upload speeds of around 2.5 Mbps, both comparable to what some of its larger competitors have been touting for their so-called 4G networks.

AT&T announced last week that it was updating its current HSPA service with the 14.4 Mbps version of the HSPA+ standard beginning later this year on its way to launching LTE services beginning next year.

For its part, Sprint Nextel is partnering with Clearwire to launch Wi-MAX services covering 120 million pops by the end of 2010, and already offers the service in dozens of markets providing real-world download speeds of around 6 Mbps.

Clearwire has also hinted that it could look towards other technology deployments as well, including LTE.

Verizon Wireless recently released a video of various speed tests it performed for its new LTE network in the Boston area showing downlink speeds of around 8.5 Mbps and upload speeds of 2.8 Mbps.

Verizon said it plans to cover 100 million pops in up to 30 markets with the new network by the end of 2010.

A fully-owned subsidiary of Deutsch Telekom, the numerous and consistent improvements made to its network is also important for T-Mobile from a marketing perspective, as the wireless carrier posted disappointing first quarter results in which it lost 77,000 customers, the poorest showing of the nationwide operators.

William Ho, vice president of consumer services at Current Analysis Inc. said in a recent recent report “network-wise, T-Mobile USA continues in a catch up game against its larger rivals such as AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless in building its 3G network and shedding an image of limited coverage.”

He added “and although it is late to 3G, its newest HSPA+ 21 Mbps provides a speed differentiation that offers a foundation to court data-centric customers. HSPA+ provides a plausible stop gap measure as the company figures out a 4G strategy and as rivals AT&T and Verizon Wireless launch LTE-based services in the next couple of years.”

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Source: T-Mobile USA.