Much of the news regarding T-Mobile lately has been about its attempted merger with Sprint, but now that that's dead, the Un-carrier is making a network-related announcement.
T-Mobile says that its LTE Advanced coverage is now available in more than 920 markets. LTE Advanced offers up to double the download speeds, so this is definitely something worth getting excited about if you're a T-Mo customer.
T-Mobile also revealed that its now offering Gigabit Class LTE coverage in more 430 of those 920 markets. Gigabit Class LTE combines 4x4 MIMO, 256 QAM, and carrier aggregation and when it's combined with sufficient spectrum and backhaul, it can increase capacity and spectral efficiency, reduce congestion, and result in faster speeds.
To get Gigabit Class LTE speeds, you'll need a device with a Snapdragon 835 processor and X16 modem, of which there are a few on T-Mobile. They include the Samsung Galaxy S8, Samsung Galaxy Note 8, Moto Z2 Force, and LG V30.
T-Mo today also said that it plans to roll out License Assisted Access (LAA) this year. LAA is an LTE technology that utilizes unlicensed spectrum on small cells to boost network capacity and speed.
