T-Mobile likely to skip HSPA+, head straight to LTE
by Darren Murph 
posted Nov 8th 2008 at 8:13PM
When you know what's just around the bend, biting on the best the world has now is that much more difficult. Just ask T-Mobile International, who told Unstrung at the World Telecoms Conference in London that it would probably bypass the whole HSPA+ thing and look straight to LTE. More specifically, CTO Joachim Horn noted that "if I need to invest into more hardware, I think it's better to start early [with LTE]. LTE is a more future-oriented technology." He did admit that T-Mobile would "deploy HSPA as long as there is no hardware replacement necessary," but that means the current 3G network would only ever hit 14.4Mbit/sec (at most). Interestingly enough, Horn also showed interest in TD-LTE, which China Mobile is currently backing as a migration path from TD-SCDMA. At any rate, T-Mob users should probably hope LTE gets here in a hurry, particularly now that you know what you're waiting for.[Via Electronista]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
DemoBama @ Nov 8th 2008 8:34PM
It makes sense that they would. I'm hoping DT's USA unit follows suit.
I doubt there will be much demand for wireless speeds in excess of 14 Mbps within the next two years anyway sans a few mobile diehards or extreme business users.
T-Mobile now has a chance to step up there game and roll out 4G services alongside their larger rivals instead of 2 years behind them.
smokeyb111 @ Nov 8th 2008 8:42PM
All I know is that DT will burn every other carrier if they pull this off and in a hurry. I'd LOVE to see this happen.
SPOKE @ Nov 9th 2008 8:29AM
Vzw and ATT have already committed to LTE for 2010-11
Eddie Bauer @ Nov 8th 2008 8:44PM
Yeah. I work for at&t. Although I naturally want my company to be successful, I still root for T-Mobile in order to bring balance and needed competition and I'm a big champion of LTE.
I would love to see T-Mobile be right at the forefront of brining 4G tech to the masses and give at&t a real reason to lower their prices. I'll admit it, at&t's 3G network is a joke in many areas and we've been deploying it already for years. And to think we charge Verizon prices and underdeliver!
I hope this is true. At least they have the spectrum to go forward with this unlike years past where they had to make due with 2.5G.
Galen20K @ Nov 8th 2008 9:33PM
Yeap its Been widly known for Months that T-Mobile, Including T-Mobile USA are Leap Frogging HSPA Evolution and Bring LTE to the Market QUICK and in A Hurry. THis has Always been its intention.
Notice how they Went Straight to HSPA right off the Bat with 3.5G in the US instead of Evolving from Basic UMTS that was VERY nice. And THey will be one of the First Providers in the USA to Provide LTE, they've already been Testing it out for MOnths and the Spectrum that they won for their 3.5G network has an Awful Lot of Spare Room for Future projects, Specifically LTE which is the Future.
So if you've been Paying attention the Last couple years you already knew that, I made a post about this a Year ago.
Very Exciting Times indeed for T-Mobile here and Abroad.
Its really nice to see that Deutsche Telekom has FINALLY started to use its Knowledge for their USA branch of their Business and its already been Apparent the last few Months and this is only the Beginning.
yelohbird @ Nov 9th 2008 6:05PM
something wrong with your shift key there, bro? seems like you may have some kind of malware which is automatically causing the first letter of many words to be upper-case, even when they're not proper nouns and not at the beginning of the sentence. Better get that checked, just in case =)
Galen20K @ Nov 9th 2008 6:47PM
Nope, ALways type like THaT Bro but THanks! - D
PSM @ Nov 8th 2008 10:48PM
I like the "only" 14.4 mbps on a phone. Which is still 2X faster than the max speed of my home cable connection!
mingkee @ Nov 8th 2008 11:31PM
being a long time T-Mobile data player
starting from 56k GPRS, and went up to EDGE in 2005
but now EDGE is barely practical, HSDPA is practical with a laptop, the speed is like regular DSL, 1Mbps is pretty good for daily use, even with youtube
it should be nice T-Mobile will step up and use band II and IV (1900 and AWS) for LTE
carcomptoy @ Nov 9th 2008 12:51AM
It would be so awesome if T-Mobile were the first to have LTE. It would be beyond amazing!!
GhostDoggy @ Nov 9th 2008 7:17AM
While there is certainly a lot more margin in wireless than any other form of telecommunications technology the retractive market and the near vaporization of the cowsumer confidence will likely make any proactive positive movement forward not happen. Of course, this is more of a non-issue for the day to day cowsumers as even if they made the decision today it would be many months before the effort made serious differences.
I love how Engadget so called reporters like to announce technologies havien arrived in given markets, but that only means it exists, not in any serious footprint.
GetOverIt @ Nov 9th 2008 9:57AM
This is a really good thing and i'm glad to hear it. Reason being is it puts pressure on AT&T and Verizon to get their LTE done faster. Competition for something like this is great, not to mention it will force Sprint to do something drastic which may put them out of their misery (finally). One thing i will be anxious to see is IF DT rolls out LTE before AT&T and Verizon if their prices will increase. I really can't see them deploying LTE before those 2 anyways. They may commit to it quicker but i highly doubt they will get it out in full force before the 2 majors get it out
Jamar @ Nov 9th 2008 10:11AM
Hopefully their "interest" in TD-LTE doesn't go too far- it's not fun having to buy T-Mobile devices to take advantage of their 3G (stupid AWS band- couldn't they have used a band that other continents actually USE? 1700 up and down is used in Japan, 850 is also used in Japan and also Australia)
Big Al @ Nov 9th 2008 9:27PM
You can't really blame T-Mobile for going with AWS... they're working with what they could get from the FCC. It's nearly impossible for every country to have the same frequencies band available. The only way to fix that for now is for the cellphones to support multiple frequency bands.
Yeah, and TD-LTE doesn't make much sense since most countries are running FDD. (WiMAX and TD-SCDMA are the only exceptions I can think of.)
7on @ Nov 10th 2008 11:20AM
Whew, I was worried there for a second. Haven't heard any rumors about 4G on T-mo. I knew they dragged with 3G, but it's good to know that they "might" be in line with the other carriers with 4G.