T-Mobile to rollout LTE in 2G areas

[mogelijk]

T-Mobile announced today that they will be rolling out LTE in all of the current 2G markets. Half the rollouts are to be finished by the end of the year, with the remainder finished by the middle of next year.

Given how the LTE rollout has gone, it wouldn't surprise me to see this completed about a year from now.

 

[DirtyDee]

Calling it crazy talk

 

[kate]

That's an ambitious goal, I wouldn't be surprised if there ends up being some delays though. Either way, that sounds like good coverage when it's finished.

 

[LuvMusic]

It may be crazy and ambitious, regardless it will mean improving coverage. TMo seems to be making crazy and ambitious a business model.....I like it!

 

[jhawkkw]

It will be great if they pull this off. One of the biggest knocks against T-Mobile is that as soon as you leave a city, you get 2G or worse in signal. Upgrading all of them to LTE will help remove that stigma, expecially if they manage to do it in a yearish time considering how slow Sprint has been to roll out LTE.

 

[DirtyDee]

Me too and the worst part I really think they can and I am someone who errs on the side of caution. Personally I think sprint has been doing a great job...of staying invisible

 

[trophynuts]

Lets face it we've all probably at one point criticized Tmo for their tactics in contracts and all that jazz yet not giving any attention to their network structure. I know I have. Sure there are a lot of people out there that have great service with Tmo no matter where they go. This news today however is exactly what I have been waiting on to hear. I do have some questions though.

In another post I asked a few months back how the 700mhz purchase from VZW would help TMO. Is it safe to assume they could possibly be using it to do this upgrade they are talking about today?

If the above is true that means newer phones have to support that band.

Either way i'm excited about this news. I hope it is true and I hope they actually upgrade faster than projected which has happened a couple of times to several networks. Hopefully this will mean better coverage in my area that will allow me to ditch VZW.

 

[codesplice]

In another post I asked a few months back how the 700mhz purchase from VZW would help TMO. Is it safe to assume they could possibly be using it to do this upgrade they are talking about today?

If the above is true that means newer phones have to support that band.

You're correct on both counts based on everything I've seen so far. :thumbup:

Still, exciting news!

 

[NYCHitman1]

In another post I asked a few months back how the 700mhz purchase from VZW would help TMO. Is it safe to assume they could possibly be using it to do this upgrade they are talking about today?

If the above is true that means newer phones have to support that band.

This is true. They will be using the 700MHz + AWS spectrum to cover the rural areas as well as provide blanket coverage to improve the regions already covered by LTE. I don't remember the exacts on the sale, but it was a relatively hefty amount of spectrum that was purchased.

On a side note, the new HTC One M8 supports both 700MHz + AWS on T-Mobile, FYI.

 

[Gman9831]

This is true. They will be using the 700MHz + AWS spectrum to cover the rural areas as well as provide blanket coverage to improve the regions already covered by LTE. I don't remember the exacts on the sale, but it was a relatively hefty amount of spectrum that was purchased.

On a side note, the new HTC One M8 supports both 700MHz + AWS on T-Mobile, FYI.

A lot of the new LTE rollout will actually be on the PCS band. But the 700MHz covers 70% of their existing customers with the 12MHz wide A block. Without Carrier Aggregation they can only do a 5x5MHz channel in it, but they're going for reach and penetration not for speed but you can still get a pretty good speed on it.

 

[trophynuts]

reach and penetration. That is what i'm talking about.

seriously though this is great news. Based on what i've seen the SGS5 isn't going to support this frequency. That is good to know about The One

 

[Gman9831]

On a side note, the new HTC One M8 supports both 700MHz + AWS on T-Mobile, FYI.

But is it the A block that tmobile will be using? Because thats Band 12 but all the LTE phones released by tmobile already have 700MHz but in B17
We need B12 not B17

 

[mogelijk]

But is it the A block that tmobile will be using? Because thats Band 12 but all the LTE phones released by tmobile already have 700MHz but in B17
We need B12 not B17

I can't seem to find which 700 band will be supported, though the T-Mobile version of the phone (different than the AT&T version) lists both AWS and 700 for LTE, which makes me hope that it actually is Band 12. It will be interesting to see which LTE bands the One (M8) actually supports.

 

[Gman9831]

I can't seem to find which 700 band will be supported, though the T-Mobile version of the phone (different than the AT&T version) lists both AWS and 700 for LTE, which makes me hope that it actually is Band 12. It will be interesting to see which LTE bands the One (M8) actually supports.

I think it's going to B17 not 12 because most of the time we just get AT&T's phone with AWS HSPA enabled and AT&T's is B17. I remember in their press releases they say the B12 phones should start releasing in the 2nd half of this year

 

[NYCHitman1]

But is it the A block that tmobile will be using? Because thats Band 12 but all the LTE phones released by tmobile already have 700MHz but in B17
We need B12 not B17

I think it's going to B17 not 12 because most of the time we just get AT&T's phone with AWS HSPA enabled and AT&T's is B17. I remember in their press releases they say the B12 phones should start releasing in the 2nd half of this year

That's a good point, Gman. I hadn't even thought to look up the specifics. After doing a little digging around, it looks like it won't be compatible with T-Mo's 700MHz spectrum since it runs on B17 instead of B12. However, it will still pull LTE from the pre-existing B4 (1700MHz/2100MHz).

 

[trophynuts]

yeah last night i read an old article from around the time of the spectrum purchase and Tmo was saying they expected the compatible devices around the second half of the year. I know you guys don't care or want to hear it but that lines up perfect for a chance of the Iphone6 having band 12. The 5s/c is already packing a butt load of compatible frequencies/bands. More than any phone to date i believe. I'm not trying to play sides , just making a statement.