NEW YORK--T-Mobile US (NYSE:TMUS) may not be claiming to be the fastest wireless network in the U.S.--yet. But expect the company to make that announcement soon.
T-Mobile CEO John Legere told the media at a press event here yesterday that T-Mobile is seeing speeds between 6 Mbps and 20 Mbps on its LTE network. "You can download 11 songs in 3 or 4 seconds," Legere said.
T-Mobile also claims its nationwide LTE network, which now covers more than 200 million POPs, delivers faster speeds than the Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ) and Sprint (NYSE:S) networks. In addition, T-Mobile claims its network is faster than AT&T's (NYSE:T) in 10 of the top 20 metropolitan markets.
Legere observed in an interview with AllThingsD that the operator was close to saying in this week's announcement that T-Mobile now has the nation's fastest 4G LTE network. "I'm not announcing we're the fastest," Legere said. "I'm announcing we will be announcing that."
And Legere noted T-Mobile's data speeds are often the fastest with much of the LTE network still deployed in only 5 x 5 MHz blocks of spectrum. The company plans to have LTE deployed in 10 x 10 MHz of spectrum in 90 percent of the top 25 metro areas by year-end and begin deploying LTE in 20 x 20 MHz of spectrum in 2014 and beyond.
Competition for the title of fastest LTE network ramped up in earnest this past summer, when AT&T (NYSE:T) took aim at the heart of Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ) with a new advertisement claiming AT&T had the nation's fastest and most reliable LTE network. T-Mobile clearly aims to make this into a three-horse race going forward.
For more:
- see this T-Mobile release
- see this AllThingsD article
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Sue Marek contributed to this article from New York.