T-Mobile Ready to Rival Verizons LTE Network

The fourth largest carrier in the U.S. is set to offer the fastest mobile broadband speeds yet: T-Mobile today announced that 55 markets now have access to the operators 42 Mbps network. The first device equipped to use the fast mobile broadband, a USB data stick called the Rocket 3.0, launches tomorrow for $99 after $50 mail-in rebate and with a 2-year data plan commitment. T-Mobile will also sell the Rocket 3.0 off-contract for $199. Post-paid data plans will start at $29 per month and T-Mobile voice customersreceivea 20 percent discount on monthly mobile data pricing.

How will T-Mobiles improved HSPA+ network rival Verizons LTE offering, which launched in December of last year? While I havent tested T-Mobiles 42 Mbps network, I did attend a demonstration of it at Januarys Consumer Electronics Show. Well have to see a real-world scenario of course, but the demonstration showed consistent download speeds topping 28 Mbps. I have used Verizons LTE network on several occasions over the past six months most recently with an LTE-capable MiFi and havent seen such speeds offered by Verizon.

While the potential performance bodes well for T-Mobile, which says 150 million people will have access to improved network speeds by mid-year, there are two questions that come to mind. First is the matter of AT&Ts plan to purchase T-Mobile because todays news complicates matters even more. AT&T hopes to use T-Mobiles 1700 MHz spectru! m to rol l out an LTE network. That makes sense on paper, but the reality is: what if that initial LTE network is actually slower than the updated 42 Mbps network T-Mobile is currently offering? LTE speeds can theoretically be faster than this, but among the major carriers, AT&T is the slowest in making its network faster.

The bigger question revolves around the pricing plans that T-Mobile currently offers customer; yesterday, the carrier revamped voice, text and data plans, for example. All of the data aspects are unlimited with an asterisk, meaning that customers are buying a set amount of data that will be provided at high speeds, but beyond that amount, speeds will be slowed. That seems counter-intuitive for a network product that isdifferentiatingitself on speed alone. And the problem may become even more evident with the new 42 Mbps network. The faster a mobile broadband connection is, the more a consumer is likely to use it, so the amount of high-speed data offered in a plan gets used up that much faster.

Put another way, if the fast network becomes a slow network on the last week of every month, no asterisk in the world is going to make for happy customers on what might currently be the fastest mobile broadband network in the U.S.

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