T-Mobile is very busy getting its LTE network up and running and is not going ahead with any infrastructure upgrades to support 84MBPS HSPA+ after this. Sprint is also racing to offer a wider LTE service this summer, which puts T-Mobile in 4th place among the 4 big networks in the race to launch the network. Everyone is asking, though, when we will see LTE up and running on T-Mobile with decent coverage. And will this happen before the iPhone 5 rolls in?
Will T-Mobile be ready with LTE for iPhone 5 2012 debut?
PocketNow claims to have the answer: The T-Mobile official blog updated earlier this week and seems to explain things. T-Mobile has said that there’ll be more coverage on the 3G 1900MHz frequency which boosts it from the 1700MHz offered by the company now. This means that subscribers will have access to more handsets, including the iPhone, which up until recently tied users to EDGE speeds due to incompatible bands. It’s still in testing, but T-Mobile expects to launch 1900MHz before 2012 is out. This means that devices like the iPhone 5 will be able to use 3G on T-Mobile very soon.
As for LTE, it is only expected to launch properly in 2013 which is a little too late for the iPhone 5 that is believed to come with 4G LTE capability and due thsi year. So it appears that this minimal band upgrade is a fallback to still attract iPhone users (we’re sure that users who had the option of LTE speeds on an iPhone 5 wouldn’t want to settle for EDGE speeds with T-Mobile).
If not, T-Mobile users will have another wait – possibly for the iPhone 6 – to be able to consider T-Mobile as a better option than Verizon, AT&T and Sprint when going for an iPhone 5 this year. We’ll keep you posted as we get more info. Have a good week people!
