According to FierceWireless, T-Mobile will turn on their HSPA+ services in the 1900 MHz PCS spectrum in the Moscone Center, San Francisco, during the WWDC 2012 this week week allowing iPhone users to take advantage of much faster speeds.
T-Mobile iPhone users in for a treat at WWDC 2012
The company are doing this to test their live network on a small scale while making upgrades to coverage in the West side of the center. This is in line with the announcement regarding the company’s $4 billion modernization of the network. T-Mobile has plans to launch their 4G HSPA+ service in many markets on the 1900 MHz band, by the end of 2012. This they say will ensure that the network is compatible with many more devices, one of which will be the iPhone.
Have T-Mobile picked the perfect time to make the announcement or is it coincidental as they would have us believe? Apple holds their WWDC keynote and as always the event generates a great deal of interest. For months now T-Mobile has noted that the upgrade to the network and the spectrum reframing will allow one million owners of unlocked iPhones access to faster speeds. At the moment those on T-Mobile bringing their unlocked phones to the carrier only get 2G EDGE as the iPhone is incompatible with the 1700 MHz AWS Spectrum which T-Mobile runs right now on the HSPA+ network.
T-Mobile will deploy LTE on the 1700 MHz spectrum and re-farm the PCS spectrum to ensure support for the 2G GSM along with HSPA+ services. On filing with the FCC they said that by 2012 they expect half of their 1900 MHz spectrum to become devoted to GSM and the other half of it will have HSPA+ services. At this time half of their AWS spectrum with have support for HSPA+ and LTE on the other half.
On a side note, there have been no announcements of a potential iPhone 5 at WWDC 2012 yet.
