It’s been a pretty big day for T-Mobile, but the news just keeps on coming. On top of the day’s other news, T-Mobile has announced that it has added three new markets to its network modernization efforts. According to the company, customers in Seattle, Minneapolis and Atlanta should be experiencing faster data speeds on unlocked devices.
T-Mobile is making HSPA+ service available on its 1900MHz spectrum as part of its network modernization. This network modernization is costing the company $4 billion, so T-Mobile is spending quite a bit of money on its refarm. T-Mobile says that a total of 18 markets have been refarmed including these three new ones, and that it should be making more announcements before the end of the year (which is just a few weeks away for those of who haven’t been paying attention).
Of course, next year is going to be big for T-Mobile, as it begins rolling out its long-awaited 4G LTE network. We don’t have a specific date for the initial launch, but we do know that T-Mobile is planning to kick off in early 2013. It has a lot of catching up to do, as Verizon plans to have its 4G LTE roll out done by the middle of 2013, and AT&T has been rolling out its LTE network at a very fast pace.
T-Mobile was making headlines earlier today after it announced that it will be ending subsidization on smartphones next year. This obviously means contract-free smartphones, which is something that other carriers don’t like to offer. We’ll see how that will work out soon enough, but in the meantime, we’ll wait for more news on T-Mobile’s network modernization. Stay tuned.
