According to IntoMobile, T-Mobile USA will launch an HSPA+ Android-based smartphone from HTC in September. The device will be the first HSPA+ smartphone offered by T-Mobile USA. The operator has deployed HSPA+ in 25 markets and plans to cover 100 major metropolitan areas--185 million people--by year's end.
A T-Mobile USA spokeswoman told FierceBroadbandWireless that the operator plans to bring an HSPA+ handset to the market in the second half of 2010 but declined to provide any further details. Currently T-Mobile's only HSPA+ device is the webConnect Rocket Laptop Stick.
But that isn't the only buzz circulating about T-Mobile's HSPA+ plans. According to the blog TMoNews, the nation's No. 4 carrier also plans to double the peak download speed of its HSPA+ network to 42 Mbps in 2011.
The blog, which cited a picture taken at a T-Mobile managers meeting in Seattle, indicated T-Mobile hopes to stay ahead of the rest of the wireless pack by increasing the speed of its network through software upgrades. The picture shows a chart with T-Mobile ahead of "VZ LTE" (presumably Verizon Wireless' (NYSE:VZ) planned LTE network), WiMAX from Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) and "AT&T 14.4."
A T-Mobile spokesperson declined to comment on the TmoNews article.
For more:
- see this IntoMobile post
- see this FierceWireless article
Related articles:
Rumor Mill: T-Mobile punching up HSPA+ to 42 Mbps in 2011
T-Mobile expands HSPA+ to 25 markets, will call it '4G'
AT&T's Stankey defends carrier's pace on HSPA+, LTE moves
AT&T chides T-Mobile for 'misleading' 4G marketing on HSPA+
AT&T now planning widespread deployment of HSPA+; LTE timeframe stays the same