T-Mobile Bringing 2×10 MHZ LTE To 90 Percent Of Top 25 Markets By End Of Year

Seeing the little “LTE” letters on your phone’s display and translating that into tangible results that you can actually see (say by a speed test) are two different things. Most people know at this point that merely a “good signal” doesn’t meant much in terms of what type of signal you’re actually getting. That’s why you can have 4-5 bars on a given network yet barely be able to open up Google.com.

T-Mobile is no stranger of network woes. While they’ve done a good job keeping prices low, plans more unique than other carriers and finally catching up to the LTE scene, it’s the last point in particular that’s still troubling. Even though they have LTE up in a growing number of markets, it’s not up to its full potential as it’s only running in a 2 x 5 MHz setup. Quite simply, it’s not optimal (which would be 2 x 10 MHz channels). But things are set to change with T-Mobile announcing that by the end of 2013, 90% of the top 25 markets will go from 2 x 5 MHz to 2 x 10 MHz allowing for faster speeds as well as more potential bandwidth for customers.

To do this, T-Mobile is already yanking some bandwidth from their HSPA+ network in places such as New York City, dropping from 42 Mbps down to 21 Mbps to repurpose bandwidth for LTE. For non-LTE users it’s a bummer as they now have 1/2 the theoretical speed. But in the long run, it’s a better move as LTE simply has more leg room and more support at this point.

Hang in there T-Mobile fans. Faster LTE is coming soon.

Via: Android Central