Real world T-mobile LTE speed test - Chantilly, VA

[WiWavelength]

"Oh baby, LTE is what I like!"

 

You know, I mistyped those lyrics previously. They actually are as follows:

 

"Ain't nothin' in the world like a big screen phone,

Make me act so nerdy, spend my doggone money..."

 

AJ

[S4GRU]

You know, I mistyped those lyrics previously. They actually are as follows:

 

"Ain't nothin' in the world like a big screen phone,

Make me act so nerdy, spend my doggone money..."

 

AJ

 

Yes, much improved.

 

Robert

[irev210]

It's a tough climb for t-mobile.

 

Once Sprint fires up LTE on ESMR and adds capacity with clearwire's spectrum, T-Mobile won't have much to fight back with.

 

Sprint will have the user experience of verizon with the pricing of T-Mobile. To me, that sounds competitive - if they can execute.

 

T-Mobile doesn't really have the growth options like Sprint does... they'll remain a solid urban carrier.

[danielholt]

It's a tough climb for t-mobile.

 

Once Sprint fires up LTE on ESMR and adds capacity with clearwire's spectrum, T-Mobile won't have much to fight back with.

 

Sprint will have the user experience of verizon with the pricing of T-Mobile. To me, that sounds competitive - if they can execute.

 

T-Mobile doesn't really have the growth options like Sprint does... they'll remain a solid urban carrier.

 

carrier aggregation son. T-mobile will not roll over and die that quickly. Plus it is almost insinuated that T-mobile will be in the top 2 carriers to win the 600mhz frequencies up for auction next year.

[S4GRU]

carrier aggregation son. T-mobile will not roll over and die that quickly. Plus it is almost insinuated that T-mobile will be in the top 2 carriers to win the 600mhz frequencies up for auction next year.

 

Tmo needs the 600, no doubt. But there is no date for this auction. It may be as soon as next year, maybe not. There will be complexities for banding/clearing existing uses, development of network hardware/device ecosystem. It's going to be four years or so before there is a network deployed and devices to be able to use it. This is not an imminent solution coming for Tmo. It will be one and a half or two complete contract cycles. A long time for someone to try out another carrier like Sprint or Verizon.

 

Robert

[WiWavelength]

T-Mobile doesn't really have the growth options like Sprint does... they'll remain a solid urban carrier.

 

With Deutsche Telekom likely to exit its stake in T-Mobile USA in the coming years, the MetroPCS brand may very well be expanded to cover all operations. And that would be a fitting name for this "urban" network.

 

AJ

[irev210]

With Deutsche Telekom likely to exit its stake in T-Mobile USA in the coming years, the MetroPCS brand may very well be expanded to cover all operations. And that would be a fitting name for this "urban" network.

 

AJ

 

You didn't see the press release? It's going to be renamed to "T-Metro".

 

[S4GRU]

You didn't see the press release? It's going to be renamed to "T-Metro".

 

 

Now, that would be fitting.

 

Robert

[iansltx]

Heck, it even shows you what your signal bars will look like when outside a metro area

 

Seriously though, T-Mobile is not holding anything back when it comes to pushing for newer techs. From what I understand, Austin is going live with LTE in less than a week, at which point T-Mo will probably cut down AWS H+ to a single carrier and go right to 10x10 (I'll confirm with my Nexus 4, with its rolled-back radio, as soon as that happens).

 

Yes, they're decreasing 3G capacity in AWS by half to make way for LTE. But, as we've discussed, they can't do things any other way because WCDMA carriers take up quite a bit of bandwidth apiece, and LTE is much more spectrally efficient in anywhere close to ideal conditions.

 

Plus, T-Mobile has had phones that support PCS HSPA+ for a few years now, probably due in part to their courtship of AT&T (who would've dismantled AWS H+ very quickly if they had been allowed to buy TMo).

[danielholt]

It'll all even out in the end. It's amazing that 2 years ago we were looking at Verizon Wireless as the only LTE player, then everyone jumped in that ship and it's been bogged down ever since. Now that all 4 carriers are doing LTE, people can find the carrier that suits them best, and 1 single carrier isn't carrying such a heavy load anymore.

[WiWavelength]

Seriously though, T-Mobile is not holding anything back when it comes to pushing for newer techs. From what I understand, Austin is going live with LTE in less than a week, at which point T-Mo will probably cut down AWS H+ to a single carrier and go right to 10x10 (I'll confirm with my Nexus 4, with its rolled-back radio, as soon as that happens).

 

No, you should not see any cutback from AWS DC-HSPA+ in Austin.

 

At its peak, T-Mobile in Austin held 50 MHz of AWS -- three non contiguous blocks of 20 MHz, 10 MHz, and 20 MHz. The AWS D block 10 MHz license, which T-Mobile received from AT&T, is gone, leased to Leap. Otherwise, the AWS A block 20 MHz and AWS D block 20 MHz licenses are still in the fold. So, in AWS, T-Mobile will continue to run DC-HSPA+ and will launch 10 MHz FDD LTE.

 

Heck, since T-Mobile also swapped PCS spectrum with Leap in Austin, it has 30 MHz of PCS -- two non contiguous blocks of 10 MHz and 20 MHz. So, T-Mobile can run DC-HSPA+ in PCS, too, with the isolated 10 MHz block left to GSM.

 

As for potentially cutting down DC-HSPA+ right away in other markets in order to deploy larger LTE carrier bandwidths, I will continue to rail against that possibility. It would be a slap in the face to subs who have acquired DC-HSPA+ devices. After all, T-Mobile only recently began selling LTE devices, so it is not as if most of those subs even had a choice.

 

AJ

[iansltx]

No, you should not see any cutback from AWS DC-HSPA+ in Austin.

 

At its peak, T-Mobile in Austin held 50 MHz of AWS -- three non contiguous blocks of 20 MHz, 10 MHz, and 20 MHz. The AWS D block 10 MHz license, which T-Mobile received from AT&T, is gone, leased to Leap. Otherwise, the AWS A block 20 MHz and AWS D block 20 MHz licenses are still in the fold. So, in AWS, T-Mobile will continue to run DC-HSPA+ and will launch 10 MHz FDD LTE.

 

Heck, since T-Mobile also swapped PCS spectrum with Leap in Austin, it has 30 MHz of PCS -- two non contiguous blocks of 10 MHz and 20 MHz. So, T-Mobile can run DC-HSPA+ in PCS, too, with the isolated 10 MHz block left to GSM.

 

As for potentially cutting down DC-HSPA+ right away in other markets in order to deploy larger LTE carrier bandwidths, I will continue to rail against that possibility. It would be a slap in the face to subs who have acquired DC-HSPA+ devices. After all, T-Mobile only recently began selling LTE devices, so it is not as if most of those subs even had a choice.

 

AJ

 

Thanks for the info about the AUS spectrum situation. I had been meaning to look that up but have been too lazy to do so.

 

As for LTE vs. DC-H+, T-Mobile has to slap someone in the face unfortunately. As someone who owns a phone that is supposed to only support DC-H+ (if you run the LTE baseband there's a good chance that you lose GSM/WCDMA voice if running Android 4.2.2), I identify with the group that will ultimately be disenfranchised by the move. But T-Mobile either keeps 10x10 of H+...which means that its last-gen network will actually run faster than its next-gen one in some cases...or it pares H+ in AWS down to 5x5 so that folks actually get a peak speed upgrade with the appropriate phone.

 

Granted, it's a bad situation. But I would say that Verizon's is slightly worse. T-Mobile has a Galaxy S III variant that runs LTE in AWS. Verizon doesn't, and now their 10x10 LTE 750 in many cases performs more poorly than T-Mobile's 10x10 DC-H+, likely with no capacity increases on the horizon because splitting cells would potentially interrupt LTE coverage for everyone. Now Verizon will be hitting AWS with LTE soon, and the Galaxy S4 does support that band, but it's sad to watch your phone data speeds dropping down to below what VZW advertises, on a network where advertised speeds are one-tenth of the site's overall capacity in ideal conditions.

[milan03]

No, you should not see any cutback from AWS DC-HSPA+ in Austin.

 

At its peak, T-Mobile in Austin held 50 MHz of AWS -- three non contiguous blocks of 20 MHz, 10 MHz, and 20 MHz. The AWS D block 10 MHz license, which T-Mobile received from AT&T, is gone, leased to Leap. Otherwise, the AWS A block 20 MHz and AWS D block 20 MHz licenses are still in the fold. So, in AWS, T-Mobile will continue to run DC-HSPA+ and will launch 10 MHz FDD LTE.

You meant F Block, right?

2x10Mhz LTE and DC-HSPA+ in AWS is what they'll have for a while as you've already pointed out.

[WiWavelength]

You meant F Block, right?

2x10Mhz LTE and DC-HSPA+ in AWS is what they'll have for a while as you already pointed out.

 

Yep, they may be separated in the AWS alphabet, but "D" and "F" are right next to one another on the keyboard.

 

 

AJ

[WiWavelength]

You didn't see the press release? It's going to be renamed to "T-Metro".

 

I vote to bring back the "VoiceStream" brand. But, as that is now a bit out of date with today's typical wireless network usage, tweak the name a little bit -- call it "TrivialMindlessMusicVideoStream."

 

AJ

[Fraydog]

I kind of wish Three would end up buying T-Mobile's US operations so we could see Dancing Pony commercials.

 

[WiWavelength]

I kind of wish Three would end up buying T-Mobile's US operations so we could see Dancing Pony commercials.

 

Yeah, and I wish that Tata Motors would buy GM. Then, I could easily get my hands on a couple of Tatas.

 

AJ

[Fraydog]

http://www.tmonews.c...in-period-ends/

 

Now here's the serious contribution to this thread... clever DT, very well played.

 

“There is an exception clause in the contract regarding the lock-up' date='” said Hoettges, who will take over as Deutsche Telekom’s chief executive officer next year. “We are in a position to sell all shares in one go.”[/color']