T-Mobile to launch HSPA+ phone in September

Light Reading reported T-Mobile USA will launch an HSPA+ Android-based smartphone from HTC in September. The device will be the first HSPA+ smartphone offered by the operator, and likely will be the first HSPA+ handset sold anywhere in the world. T-Mobile has so far 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 FierceWireless 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 its webConnect Rocket Laptop Stick. However, a Deutsche Telekom spokesman (DT is the parent company of T-Mobile USA) told Light Reading the upcoming HSPA+ phone will be made by HTC and will use Google's Android operating system.

That same DT spokesman also threw cold water on a report yesterday from the blog TMoNews, which said T-Mobile USA was planning to double the peak download speed of its HSPA+ network to 42 Mbps in 2011. "T-Mobile USA has not decided yet if they will use the new 42 Mbps standard or maybe rollout LTE for the U.S.," he said in an email. 

For more:
- see this Light Reading post

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