Add to del.icio.us     Digg this

Sep. 21, 2009

T-Mobile USA really likes HSPA+ technology, and it has turned on about twenty mobile antenna sites in the Philadelphia area. This represents the first time HSPA+ technology is activated in the U.S.

Overall, T-Mobile's commitment to HSPA technology is a logical one for the GSM community.

But recently, T-Mobile's rival AT&T said it will make the jump to LTE without the usual HSPA+ interim step.

Neville Ray, senior v.p. of Engineering & Operations at T-Mobile says "on average, HSPA+ deployment shows a promising start."

Ray added that he was surprised by AT&T's move, but "it's their business." Onlookers have suggested AT&T is going the LTE route faster because it has 700 MHz spectrum that needs to get used.

Ray said the HSPA+ upgrade generally involves a software rather than hardware upgrade, although that's somewhat vendor-dependent. T-Mobile plans to expand the Philadelphia market further with HSPA+ and will expand from there well into next year.

"We're largely committed to the LTE route," he said, pointing out that T-Mobile is paving the way in a lot of areas, and the U.S. division can learn a lot from its parent company.

Nevertheless, both T-Mobile USA and AT&T are going the way of LTE. At the same time, AT&T is rolling out HSPA 7.2 in some U.S. markets now.

For its part, 3G Americas expects most of the HSPA networks will convert to HSPA+ as well.

Part of the decision-making process no doubt involves wireless spectrum. In a recent interview, Chris Pearson, president of 3G Americas said he thinks one of the key issues for a mobile service carrier to consider will be their assets, engineering resources and budget in terms of whether to go to HSPA+ or not.

"I think HSPA+ technology will be extremely successful, not only in the U.S. but also elsewhere in the Americas. That said, we also think LTE is going to be successful," added Pearson.

For now, T-Mobile is the first wireless carrier to offer HSPA+ service in the U.S. It will be interesting to see the speed at which other wireless operators follow suit, and at which time AT&T will deploy HSPA+ on its network.

Add to del.icio.us     Digg this

    This article was featured on Business 5.0 and on Tech Blog.

Source: T-Mobile USA.