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T-Mobile 3G nationwide upgrade to begin now

By Tim Conneally, BetaNews

May 5, 2008, 4:22 PM

T-Mobile USA's UMTS/HSDPA network rollout last week in New York will now be followed by buildouts in 20 more markets, according to plan. Spokespersons say this upgrade will cover both voice and data traffic, contrary to prior reports.

The number four carrier in the US has reportedly spent nearly $5 billion on the 3G network, and has done little to hype up the upgrade. Device support is currently lacking, however the company has plans to add to the lineup of handsets within the next week to include the carrier's first HSDPA device, and several "all-in-one" handsets.

Markets in the rollout are New Jersey/Long Island, Austin, Houston, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, Miami, Dallas, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver, Detroit, Orlando, Kansas City, Atlanta, Los Angeles, New England, Portland, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, Washington D.C., Birmingham, Memphis, Tampa, and Phoenix. These will be up and running "by year's end," according to T-Mobile.

This network upgrade has been anticipated for over two years.

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By Tenoq

edited May 5, 2008 - 7:57 PM

"Device support is currently lacking..."

Err, what? All Australian networks support HSDPA now, and one of them has been running a nationwide (98.9% coverage) network for 18 months. There are plenty of HSDPA devices available - both phones and USB/Cardbus/Expresscard modems. Device support is already up to the 7.2Mbps/1.9Mbps range locally. So how can you say there is a lack of devices? Is T-Mobile using some weird band that no-one else in the world is using?