T-Mobile joining the LTE party, finally...

[pyroscott]

Deutsche Telecom has decided to go ahead and fund a LTE buildout for its T-Mobile network. Why, after investing so heavily in its own form of 4G, HSPA+?

The reason could be: that thanks to the $3B and spectrum from AT&Ts breakup fee, they have the means to do it without a large investment by DT, 4G LTE roaming agreements could have been part of AT&T's breakup fee, that they lost nearly a million customers to other networks in the fourth quarter of 2011, they could be partnering with Clearwire for wholesale LTE, they could finally be receiving the iPhone but Apple will not put anything but a LTE radio for 4G in the iPhone 5. It could be any or all of those reasons.

 

Any way you look at it, having all the major carriers using the same technology can only be a good thing when you think that someday there could be LTE roaming argeements and devices that can access LTE on any frequency.

 

http://allthingsd.co...ch-lte-in-2013/

[S4GRU]

Ain't no party, like an LTE party!!!

 

Posted via Forum Runner

[christopherc18]

Ain't no party, like an LTE party!!!

 

Posted via Forum Runner

Because the LTE party don't stop (unless you're verizon and there's an outage...)

[pyroscott]

Because the LTE party don't stop (unless you're verizon and there's an outage...)

I wrote the same exact thing... that's funny!

 

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

[S4GRU]

I got the email notifications exactly at the same time. I had to do a double take because I thought one of you was quoting the other at first. I got a chuckle out of it.

 

Posted via Forum Runner

[ericdabbs]

I am glad that Tmobile is finally converting to LTE. I think they realize that HSPA+ is not their 4G future and they need to convert to the true 4G standard in LTE. I just like to see the entire wireless industry convert to the same 4G standard and not have a 3G GSM/CDMA battle.

 

Since Tmobile plans to launch LTE in AWS spectrum, I guess this pokes the hole in a potential Sprint/Tmobile LTE network sharing agreement. Also the press release doesn't really tell how much spectrum they plan to use to launch their LTE network. I assume they will start off with a 5x5 configuration and slowly refarm spectrum from there.

[xcharles718]

Well, there going to start moving HSPA+ onto PCS, so I guess from markets that did that, they can slowly refarm AWS to LTE.

[tybo31316]

Because the LTE party don't stop (unless you're verizon and there's an outage...)

 

Rofl

[legion125]

T-Mobile was also looking at other options besides trying to stop the Verizon deal. Now that DT is event giving them some money, I wonder if T-Mo will seek alliance with DISH or if DISH will go with Sprint for network hosting? I don't think DISH is really excited about doing anything with AT&T.

[ericdabbs]

T-Mobile was also looking at other options besides trying to stop the Verizon deal. Now that DT is event giving them some money, I wonder if T-Mo will seek alliance with DISH or if DISH will go with Sprint for network hosting? I don't think DISH is really excited about doing anything with AT&T.

 

I am sure DISH is not too thrilled with AT&T trying to force DISH to a spectrum sale since it wouldn't be ready to build out its LTE network yet. I hope that Sprint and DISH do partner up for spectrum hosting because its gives Sprint a new source of revenue. Sprint has given its blessing to DISH to build a LTE network as good will. In addition the timeline fits in that by the time Sprint is finished putting up NV towers nationwide, it will have the tower infrastructure to easily add DISH's equipment to support their network. I see a Sprint and DISH spectrum hosting deal as a no brainer but I am just not sure if Sprint is even thinking about that right now unless they are awaiting the FCC approval of Dish's spectrum first before proposing any deals.

Edited February 24, 2012 by ericdabbs

[ericdabbs]

Interesting article that provides more details of Tmobile's LTE plans with some nice pictures of their antennas with integrated radios.

 

http://www.extremete...market-by-storm

Edited February 25, 2012 by ericdabbs

[pyroscott]

Interesting article that provides more details of Tmobile's LTE plans with some nice pictures of their antennas with integrated radios.

 

http://www.extremete...market-by-storm

 

That is a great article. Good find. After reading that article, it almost looks like DT decided it wants to either compete in the US market or set itself up to sell to an entity that is not currently in the wireless game. The graphic on device interoperability is scary to Sprint. They could be the only major wireless carrier who requires special devices...

[ChadBroChillz]

That is a great article. Good find. After reading that article, it almost looks like DT decided it wants to either compete in the US market or set itself up to sell to an entity that is not currently in the wireless game. The graphic on device interoperability is scary to Sprint. They could be the only major wireless carrier who requires special devices...

 

Tmobile would still require HSPA+ on their AWS band. Also with new chips being able to handle every technology under the the sun, I do not see it as a major problem. They might not have the same ability to get international devices like tmobile or att, but manufactures will still create devices for them. The main problem could be the iphone, but with their 15 billion dollar deal, I am sure they included that provision, plus Europe is suppose to be using the 800mhz( not sure if its similar to 800mhz cellular or ESMR) for LTE and China mobile, who apple supposedly promised the iphone to, is using TD-LTE at 2500mhz.