T-Mobile says it will ramp up HSPA+ speeds to 42M bps in 2011 and reach 200 million people in 2010.
T-Mobile
plans to increase theoretical peak speeds of its HSPA+ (High-Speed Packet
Access) to 42M bps in 2011, according to an Aug. 31 statement from Neville Ray,
the company's chief network officer. Currently, the carrier offers
"theoretical" peak speeds of 21M bps.
HSPA+
will allow Android phones to reach 4G speeds at downloads up to three times
faster than 3G, the company has said.
T-Mobile
also reported that it will expand the HSPA+ network to 100 million customers in
the United States
and nine additional cities, including Boston;
San Diego; Miami;
Topeka, Kan.;
and Spokane, Wash.
The
carrier also plans to reach 200 million people later this year, according to
Ray.
The
company recently announced that it will have an
Android G2 (most likely an HTC
model) available by mid-September on the HSPA+ network.
Rob
Enderle, principal analyst for the Enderle Group, explained that the expansion
of the network should provide a boost to the selling power of the G2 phone.
"This is what will make new phones like the HTC
Android G2 sing, and it is a strong response to Sprint's 4G
moves," Enderle wrote in an e-mail to eWEEK.
In
May, T-Mobile
expanded its network along the East Coast, including in New
York, Connecticut and Rhode
Island. It first launched HSPA+ in Philadelphia
in September 2009.
With
HSPA+, T-Mobile is in a race for faster wireless speeds with
Verizon's LTE, Sprint Nextel's
WiMax and AT&T's 14.4 HSPA+ networks.
"T-Mobile
lags Verizon significantly in coverage and has a huge opportunity against a
near-crippled AT&T if they can bring something unique and powerful to
market," Enderle wrote. At&T's "network is saturated and
they are having the biggest bandwidth problems of any of the
providers," Enderle wrote. This has prompted many AT&T
customers to move to other mobile carriers, he noted.
AT&T
service also has been strained due to iPhone load, as noted when the
Dell
Aero smartphone was released. The carrier has also been known for locking
down Android phones on its network from installing applications outside the
Android Market.
"HSPA+
coupled with T-Mobile's bandwidth headroom may be enough to put them back in
the running and, at the very least, where they have coverage make them a better
choice for those that want to use the full capability of their hot new
smartphones," Enderle added.
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