T-Mobile rolled out a major expansion to its 4G LTE network earlier this month, expanding its coverage from the 7 markets that launched in March up to a total of 116 cities across the country. Now T-Mo has detailed another big LTE upgrade that it's got planned, and this one's all about speed.
T-Mobile has confirmed to LightReading that it will be rolling out 2x10MHz channels of LTE to 90 percent of the top 25 U.S. markets by the end of 2013. The enhancement will bring faster data speeds to the upgraded areas, which will include New York City. T-Mobile CEO John Legere recently tweeted about some 2x10MHz LTE network testing that being run run in NYC, revealing that he managed to pull a download speed of 61.19Mbps and an upload speed of 16.08Mbps in one test.
As it stands now, many of T-Mobile's LTE markets are utilizing 2x5MHz radio channels. The big magenta carrier is working to improve its service, though, which is where the spectrum gained from its MetroPCS deal will come in handy. T-Mobile is also in the process of rolling out its LTE network to more customers around the country and refarming its 2G 1900MHz spectrum to be used for speedier HSPA+ service.
While it's unclear exactly which markets will be receiving the 2x10MHz LTE upgrades and when they'll be getting them, the news of the network enhancement is big for Magenta customers that love fast data (and really, who doesn't?), especially since the upgrades will be taking place in many major U.S. markets. And for those consumers that aren't in one of T-Mobile's 116 LTE markets, your carrier hasn't forgotten about you: T-Mo recently said that it plans to deploy LTE coverage to 200 million people in over 200 markets by the end of 2013.
