Regional wireless operator Cincinnati Bell is the latest carrier to brand its mobile broadband service as "4G" via an HSPA+ network upgrade.
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"Everything faster with... 4G" proclaims Cincinnati Bell's website. |
The carrier said the new network upgrade will produce speeds that are three times as fast as its legacy 3G network. On the company's website, it is advertising a peak speed of up to 10 Mbps. The company did not reveal which vendors it is using for the HSPA+ rollout.
Cincinnati Bell said its HSPA+21 network is live in the greater Cincinnati area, and spokeswoman Lisa McLaughlin told FierceWireless that the carrier has an HSPA+ roaming agreement with T-Mobile USA. She also said that the carrier's primary vendor for the network is Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC). T-Mobile's HSPA+ 21 Mbps network is live in more than 100 metropolitan areas, covering more than 200 million POPs, and the company is busy expanding to its faster HSPA+ 42 Mbps service. McLaughlin declined to comment on if or when Cincinnati Bell's HSPA+ service will expand.
Cincinnati Bell also introduced the Huawei Ascend X 4G for the HSPA+ network. The device sports a 1 GHz processor, runs the Android 2.2 operating system, has a 4.1-inch touchscreen display and a 5-megapixel camera. The carrier said it will sell the device with a limited time, buy-one-get-one-free offer for $99 after mail-in rebate and with a two-year contract and smartphone data plan. The company plans to add more 4G phones to its lineup in the coming months.
The network launch comes shortly after a lawmaker introduced a bill in Congress that would require wireless carriers to spell out the guaranteed minimum data speed that their networks will deliver when they market their services as "4G."
For more:
- see this release
- see this Cincinnati Bell site
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Article updated July 7 with comments from Cincinnati Bell.