T-Mobile expands 1900 MHz HSPA+ service to 10 more markets

T-Mobile USA launched HSPA+ service in its 1900 MHz spectrum in 10 additional markets including Miami; Phoenix; San Francisco; Mesa and Tucson, Ariz.; Modesto, Oakland, San Jose and Stockton, Calif.; and Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The new markets bring T-Mobile's 1900 MHz HSPA+ footprint to 15 metro markets including the previously announced markets of Baltimore; Houston; Kansas City; Las Vegas and Washington D.C.

T-Mobile CTO Neville Ray announced the new markets via a company blog post. He also said that more markets are expected to launch before year-end. The company is working on adding HSPA+ 1900 MHz capabilities in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, the New York metro area, Philadelphia, San Diego and Seattle.  

At the 4G World conference in Chicago last month, Ray said T-Mobile USA had completed 95 percent of the refarming of its 1900 MHz spectrum but had not launched HSPA+ service in all those markets. Some of company's HSPA+ deployments in its 1900 MHz spectrum were delayed due to Hurricane Sandy.

As part of its $4 billion network upgrade, T-Mobile plans to use its 1700 MHz AWS spectrum for LTE while it refarms its 1900 MHz spectrum for HSPA+ service. The carrier plans to launch LTE next year.

Ray has said that the company will have a "material" footprint of refarmed 1900 MHz spectrum by year-end and the company plans on refarming its entire 229-city footprint for HSPA+ on PCS spectrum by mid-2013. T-Mobile plans to reserve a small slice of PCS spectrum for GSM services such as roaming and M2M connectivity.

Deploying HSPA+ into 1900 MHz will allow T-Mobile to provide faster speeds to unlocked iPhones.

For more:
- see this blog post

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