T-Mobile to increase 4G speeds in two dozen markets by midyear

T-Mobile this week said it was set to double the speeds of its HSPA+ network to 42Mbps in three cities this spring, with service initially launching in New York City, Orlando, Florida, and Las Vegas. Long Island, N.Y, northern New Jersey, and Chicago would follow soon after, expanding to about 25 markets by the middle of the year.

The carrier's announcements come just days after it announced a blockbuster merger with AT&T that would create the nation's largest wireless carrier. Regardless, T-Mobile had said it would continue with its plans until the merger's approval, including network expansion and new device releases.

While the carrier may be moving on, customers would only be able to enjoy these speeds until the merger completes. That is because the frequencies being used HSPA+ would be repurposed for 4G LTE service: T-Mobile would be migrated to AT&T's frequencies for 3G service according to the company.

Either way, the speed upgrade likely means that in real world tests, speeds of around 14-18Mbps would likely be attained. Tests of T-Mobile's current HSPA+ network have resulted in real-world speeds of 7-9Mbps, a bit slower than Verizon's initial LTE rollouts.

"Access to mobile content is central to the experience on a vast and growing number of consumer devices, exponentially increasing the demand for fast 4G mobile broadband connections," T-Mobile marketing chief Cole Brodman said, noting the carrier's data traffic has quadrupled in the past year.

The first device to take advantage of the 42Mbps upgrade would be the T-Mobile Rocket 3.0, available in the spring. Other 4G devices would be released during the year -- about 25 this year alone -- but not all would be able to take advantage of the speed bump.

One of these devices is T-Mobile's G2x, the successor to the carrier's first HSPA+ device that was released in September of last year. The G2x would include a 1GHz dual-core processor, 4-inch display, 8-megapixel camera, and a front facing camera with T-Mobile's chat application produced by Qik. The device is slated to launch later this spring. T-Mobile formerly announced the G2x today at the CTIA Wireless tradeshow.