T-Mobile USA has expanded its HSPA+ footprint to eight new markets and says it’s on pace to cover 200 million people with its upgraded network by the end of the year.
The new markets include Detroit, Mich.; Grand Junction, Colo.; Harlingen, Texas; Lafayette and South Bend, Ind.; Montgomery, Ala.; Roanoke-Lynchburg, Va., and Youngstown, Ohio. T-Mobile now has done HSPA+ upgrades in more than 80 metropolitan areas around the country.
T-Mobile is branding its HSPA+ service as 4G. The company’s chief technology officer, Neville Ray, said earlier this month that the network delivers average download speeds approaching 5Mbps on T-Mobile’s myTouch 4G phone in some cities, with peak speeds of nearly 12Mbps.
The carrier plans to launch dual-carrier HSPA+ sometime next year. The technology’s peak theoretical speeds clock in at 42Mbps, double that of the peak theoretical speeds of T-Mobile’s current HSPA+ deployment.