Watch out, the fourth largest mobile carrier just tossed a 4G grenade at its enemies. T-Mobile announced yesterday that it officially flipped the switch for its 4G network in six more U.S. cities. Are you ready for 4G?
Chicago, Colorado Springs, Ft. Wayne, Lousiville, Raleigh-Durham and Wilmington, you now have 4G speeds. This news comes right after Verizon announced last month that it would have its own 4G LTE networks up and running in 38 metro areas by the end of the year. Sprint — the first mobile carrier in the U.S. to turn on its 4G network earlier this year will soon be facing direct competition on all fronts.
In conjunction with its 4G speeds announcement, T-Mobile plans to release its myTouch 4G smartphone. It's a tiny step, but it signals the beginning of 4G for more people. By this time next year, we expect to see 4G adoption pick up rapidly — our fondness of uploading HD videos to YouTube and photos to Facebook reaffirm this.
As an aside, some will argue that T-Mobile's HSPA+ network technically isn't really 4G and is more like 3.5G, but with tested speeds of up to 12mbps it's almost twice as fast as what's currently being offered on 3G. It's close enough. Besides, who cares what the technical upload and download figures are if you never even approach those targets in real life — ahem, iPhone, we're staring at you.
So the big question is, are you gearing up for 4G? Planning to pick up any 4G phones? Love the speed but hate the battery life (Sprint's HTC Evo 4G smartphone hardly makes it through a full work day with 4G on)? Tell us!
T-Mobile, via Techcrunch
