Late last week, T-Mobile CTO Neville Ray revealed that his carrier had officially refarmed its network on the 1900MHz band in Las Vegas, which would give customers with unlocked iPhones access to faster data speeds. Now Ray has confirmed the news on T-Mobile's official Insights & Issues Blog, saying that the improved coverage is now live in Las Vegas. The exec explains that its refarmed network in Las Vegas will result in improved coverage and capacity in many hotels and places like the Las Vegas Convention Center as well as in surrounding cities such as Henderson and Summerlin. T-Mobile customers with unlocked iPhones will also be able to access its HSPA+ 1900MHz network, giving them faster speeds than they would normally see on T-Mobile. Ray has also said that some refarmed cell sites are already live in places like Seattle and Los Angeles, with "many markets" expected to see improved coverage in the coming months.
T-Mobile has been talking up its network refarming process since early this year, so it's good to see Magenta making progress in that regard. Ever since we first got wind of T-Mobile's refarming plans, the carrier has said that the process would allow customers with unlocked iPhones to access HSPA+ speeds on its network, which would be quite improved over the 2G EDGE speeds that iPhone users on T-Mobile would normally see.
The refarming work is part of an effort by T-Mobile to convince unlocked iPhone users to switch to its network, and we've even learned that T-Mobile will soon begin carrying nano-SIM cards specifically for customers with unlocked iPhone 5s. While all of this work may not result in the same number of iPhone subscribers as actually offering a T-Mobile-ready iPhone would, I'm sure that the prospect of HSPA+ connectivity and an unlimited data plan can convince a few folks to go Magenta. So, are any of you Las Vegas residents seeing improved T-Mobile coverage today?
