T-Mobile Mocks Your 7.2Mbps, Claims 21Mbps in 2010
AT&T has announced that they will be rolling out their 7.2Mbps HSPA 3G this year to a few markets. T-Mobile is now claiming that they will do the same–maybe they will start by rolling standard 3G out to more markets, we are still without 3G for T-Mobile where I live.
So, where do we go from here? Most carriers will soon be talking about their 4G networks however, T-Mobile is boasting their super-boosted 3G rocking out at 21Mbps.
While most carriers are doing the smart thing and dropping 3G at the 7.2Mbps barrier and moving up to 4G, T-Mobile is going to use and abuse the 3G network for as long as they can. They claim that they will be able to reach near 4G speeds in 2010. [mocoNews]
Real world speeds are what matters, and 21mbps HSPA+ is upgradable to 42mbps HSPA+ with minor changes. LTE handsets aren’t expected to be available until Q4 2011. Why? Because LTE doesn’t even have a voice component yet. So that means VZW and ATT will be using LTE as a simple data overlay. Oh, not to mention that an HSPA+ upgrade is a cheaper, smoother transition to LTE when the market is ready. HSPA+ allows a wireless operator to upgrade their backend infrastructure (ya know, the reason your iphone gets 30% dropped calls and EDGE speeds over HSDPA), in preperation for LTE. This includes possibly transitioning to an all-ip network which improves efficiency on the backend.